Chicago and Detroit are textbook examples of the failure of liberalism. Detroit went after every government spending project that could be conceived. Today, it is a modern Pompeii, minus the volcano.
People pay money to tour the ruins of Detroit.
Chicago is not far behind. Liberal policies have driven the middle class from the Windy City, leaving only large swaths of poverty and a few zones inhabited by the very wealthy.
Economically, Chicago is only 10 years or maybe fewer behind Detroit in its race toward fiscal oblivion.
But there is one huge difference between Detroit and Chicago. There is one area in which Detroit is showing sanity and perhaps hope for the future.
Chicago has some of the most draconian gun control laws in the nation. Recently in Chicago, 22 people were shot in a 12-hour period, including a 12-year-old girl who was attending a sleepover.
Stories of gun violence in Chicago are so common no one even notices anymore. Gun violence in Chicago now is the punch line of late-night TV host jokes.
But a funny thing has happened in Detroit.
Faced with the absolute, stark, cold reality that the police department could not answer anywhere near the number of calls about violent crime they were receiving, Detroit Police Chief James Craig in January made news and shocked liberals when he said Detroit residents should use guns to protect themselves.
Chief Craig’s call was stunning. Most police chiefs are simply appointed by city mayors, which means they simply parrot the line on gun control the left-wing mayors offer.
Chief Craig showed courage when he called for the citizens of his city to defend themselves.
What has been the result?
So far in 2014, robberies are down by 37 percent, burglaries by 22 percent and carjackings by 30 percent.
Liberals have no explanation for the fact that their policies don’t work and conservative policies do. When the Detroit News asked the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, its spokesman sniffed that more guns mean more crime.
The Detroit story is not making the news. The liberal media try their hardest to avoid stories about violence in Chicago, but the epidemic of shootings there makes it impossible.
There is a deeper story here. Liberalism never works.
Liberals always promise that if we just adopt their ideas, everything will be perfect.
Liberals tell us that if we just tax the rich, we will have plenty of money. In states where the rich are being taxed, the rich are fleeing. States with low taxes are attracting the wealthy.
Liberals tell us that if we will just throw more money at education, that will fix America’s education problem. America has been doing that for 40 years now. Every year it gets worse.
And liberals tell us that if law-abiding citizens will simply give up their guns, gun violence will end.
That has been tried in both Britain and Australia. Look at the results. In both nations, gun violence continues unabated. Only the citizens are defenseless.
Chicago shows America every day what life is like for defenseless people.
Detroit shows what happens when a city encourages its people to be armed and defend themselves.
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