OPINION:
It never ceases to amaze that liberals and progressives can stand in the middle of cities and towns they’ve destroyed and ask for more power and promotions. Yes, they do it all the time, and the lead-ups to the 2020 elections are no different.
The latest to arrange theater for her announcement that she’s running for president was Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts. Standing outside a textile factory in the economically depressed sanctuary city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Ms. Warren delivered a screed against “the rich,” attempting to cast blame for the condition of people’s lives on those who are doing well.
Launching a political run on class warfare isn’t new or inspiring; blaming the successful is an old and tired trope of the left. After all, when your policies destroy economies and lives, you need to both scapegoat and demonize the successful. It has become such a habit that Democrats can’t acknowledge the economic successes of the president, and even more seriously, refuse to admit the damage inflicted on cities and states under the boot of Democratic policies.
Lawrence is an iconic American city. First settled in the 1600s, the city has a storied past for the labor movement and is the home of many notable Americans, including composer Leonard Bernstein and poet Robert Frost.
Now, Lawrence is a Democratic-led sanctuary city and the concomitant problems. According to the U.S. Census population estimates 2018, 79 percent of its population is Hispanic, and one in four are living in poverty. In 2015, the Valley Patriot reported Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera opposed making Lawrence a sanctuary city, but “he will not veto the city council’s vote Tuesday to stop criminal illegal aliens from being deported when arrested by Lawrence Police.”
One short year later, the 2016 FBI crime data report placed Lawrence in the top 12 of the most dangerous cities in Massachusetts. Relative to Massachusetts, FBI crime data indicates Lawrence has a crime rate that is higher than 93 percent of the state’s cities and towns of all sizes.
According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), more than 80 percent of heroin and fentanyl come into this country through the southern border. As Democrats fight to keep that border open and fight against the border wall, they put in place sanctuary policies that inevitably attract those who prefer to avoid federal law enforcement. Lawrence has since become, according to one U.S. attorney, a drug distribution base for New England.
The Daily News in New England reported on Oct. 5, 2018, “In raids throughout the city [of Lawrence], federal authorities arrested at least 50 people — many of whom are living in the country illegally — allegedly responsible for distributing large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other drugs throughout New England using Lawrence as a base, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. ’Lawrence is a clearinghouse for illegal drugs pouring into New Hampshire and Maine,’ Lelling told reporters at a press briefing Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Boston. ’Unfortunately, the city has become a source, a transit point, for large amounts of drugs going not only into neighboring towns, but elsewhere in New England.’ “
Enter Ms. Warren, firmly entrenched in the status quo, representing the very policies destroying people’s lives right now in Lawrence. She stood in front of a factory to begin her diatribe.
“Rich guys have been waging class warfare against hard working people for decades. I say it’s time to fight back …,” says the woman basing a political campaign on … class warfare. So detached from reality, Ms. Warren didn’t realize was actually talking about herself and her party.
According to a campaign filing, she and her husband have a combined net worth between $4 million and $11 million.
Ira Stoll at The Sun also noted this: “Mrs. Warren’s rich-bashing also risks getting a bit awkward … [she] was introduced in Lawrence as ’the next president of the United States of America’ by Joseph Kennedy III, a congressman from Massachusetts. His disclosed wealth of about $42 million derives primarily not from the Hyannis Port and Palm Beach Kennedy side of his family but rather from his mother Sheila Brewster Rauch’s status as an heir to the Standard Oil fortune.”
Getting rich is great, I wish it for everyone. But dangerously dumb policies don’t discriminate, they come from Democrats in general across the economic spectrum. Democrats such as Ms. Warren and Mr. Kennedy (the rich) and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (the not rich) all push ideas and policy that destroy towns like Lawrence and the lives of all of us.
The problem for the Democrats is the class warfare and embracement of bizarre socialist schemes is not just Ms. Warren’s issue — it’s the trajectory of most of the party favorites. Now we know why Howard Schultz, a lifelong Democrat, feels more comfortable running as an independent and why the Democrats are so afraid of that possibility.
• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk show host.
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