OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
All the mayhem unfolding in Baltimore is nothing short of an unspeakable American tragedy. Laid bare are the failures of cradle-to-grave social policies held so dear by politicians in both parties, but embraced and celebrated most lustily by Democrats.
These self-proclaimed Robin Hoods and do-gooders have issued open and unashamed invitations to the most vulnerable in society to become completely dependent upon government for everything from food to cellphones to home heating oil. Left in the wake is the utter annihilation of families and the destruction of cohesive neighborhoods.
Complete dependency comes at such a high and bitter cost. All in return for what really amounts to a sad pittance of welfare payments. It is a twisted mockery of the American dream.
All the while, urban hucksters skim off their take and politicians — drunk off their own florid false promises — clap one another on the back and congratulate one another for their “compassion” for the poor.
In truth, peddling welfare and total dependency upon the government is every bit as toxic as peddling meth and crack in these very same neighborhoods.
Actually, it is even worse than peddling drugs. Drugs most directly ensnare willing participants in an evil scheme. The government’s crushing welfare cartel dishonestly ensnares the best, brightest and most responsible of these neighborhoods — the very people who might otherwise be leading their families and neighbors into real prosperity and out of the dusty clutches of government welfare.
It has been more than six years of President Obama’s “progressive” policies and many, many decades more of the same “progressive” policies in Baltimore and Maryland.
Money pours into the city’s public education system — with negligible improvement. Corrupt and incompetent administrators waste the money and game the system as a job provider for adults rather than a means for educating children.
Reports reveal that President Obama’s “stimulus” program dumped some $467 million into Baltimore schools. To what end?
Things are so bad that the only halfway celebrated person in the past few weeks is a single mother who spied her son in a mask, tossing rocks and rioting. She marched over and into the mayhem and began violently punching, slapping and flailing her son on national television.
Perhaps understandable in a seriously detached sort of way. But also not exactly the sort of antics that would win anybody a mother of the year award if it happened in our own neighborhood.
Baltimore is a petri dish of liberal policies taken to their furthest extreme. If you are looking for liberalism’s idealistic utopia, it is Baltimore. Baltimore is as close to a perfect execution of all their most beloved policies. And now they want to handle all your health care needs — whether you want them to or not.
• Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com and on Twitter at @charleshurt.
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