You have to admit: the American left, or today’s Democrat party, gave it all they had. After the heady Obama years and the pivot to the left, they rose again to power in 2020, fairly or not, and began the dismantling of anything and everything Trump had done in his first term, out of spite as much as out of policy. With their puppet now in charge, they then turned to dismantling energy, immigration, and regulation policy to complete the fundamental transformation that their prior leader promised.
Today, especially in California, we can finally witness the results. Their term ended in disaster on every front, as socialist regimes always do. Our country suffered unnecessary death and humiliation in Afghanistan. Their party led an overspending extravaganza, unleashing an inevitable inflationary spiral. They opened the borders to all comers, leading to an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration, and they tightened the screws of environmental regulation.
But the final debacle of failed Democrat policy programs is the Los Angeles Fires of 2024. Not since the Burning of Atlanta had the country witnessed such devastation. The city’s feckless mayor (and veteran Fidel Castro–supporter), Karen Bass, and California governor Gavin Newsom fiddled while the city burned. The mayor decamped to Ghana for an inaugural celebration of their president a few days before the fires, even as the National Weather Service issued warnings, even a press conference to sound an alarm. Her deputy mayor was on leave, being investigated for calling in a bomb threat to city hall. And so, was the city council in charge? Or maybe the Fire Department? Or maybe the governor? We don’t know yet, because they are all pointing the finger of blame at one another and at their favorite go-to, climate change. Climate change rendered the fire hydrants dry or broken or stolen; climate change set off a wave of looting of empty homes, while evacuees watched helplessly. This raises the climate question: if climate change is an actual increasing danger, why was the city not even more prepared than usual?
The politicians of course promise a quick, efficient rebuilding — with federal money, because the state and the city are broke. Yet this promise lacks credibility: in the last major fire in 2018, 1,600 structures were burned to the ground, and today, only about a third have been rebuilt. The present fire has destroyed about ten times the number of structures. So that means roughly 10,000 families are now without a place to live. As in the Paradise fire in Northern California and the Woolsey fire, many people will just leave the state. The insurance and rebuilding effort is just too onerous, expensive, and time-consuming.
Mr. Biden had promised an open checkbook to his fellow Democrat governor to cover expenses for 180 days. One of the worst fears in Los Angeles is that the governor and his party will control this relief money, and the cash will end up in the same place as the $24 billion spent on homelessness and the $30 billion in fraud paid by the EDD during the COVID unemployment period. No audit has been done or ordered. No one knows where the money is or how it was spent.
The only solution to this carnival of corruption is for our new president to take control of the rebuilding, its funds, and any oversight board. Trump is a builder. Even his critics acknowledge that his vision and prowess as a builder had much to do with the revitalization of Manhattan during the 1980s. As president, he is not content to steer America through decline; his visionary approach is instead to reach for the stars and usher in a new Golden Age. I believe he can do it, because the people want that, too.
He can start by rebuilding Los Angeles. He can help revive this charred, lifeless city. The feckless, incompetent government in place now has destroyed a city and perhaps even a culture, or cultures: the historic charm of 1920s Altadena, the family beach town of the Palisades. Today even deep blue California understands that something is terribly wrong here. President Trump can show them that they are correct and how to fix it.
The president stated in his inaugural address that “the impossible is what we do best.” We believe that when he visits Los Angeles on Friday, he will see not only a disaster, but an opportunity to excel.
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This article was originally published at www.americanthinker.com
