New York Times columnist and former Oregon Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nicholas Kristof admitted on Saturday that the West Coast cities is “a mess” because of Democratic Party leaders.
In a column for the New York Times, Kristof argued that “West Coast liberalism” is more focused on the intentions behind its policies rather than its outcomes. As a result, deep blue states like Oregon have major homeless and drug problems, “below-average” high school graduation rates, and high murder rates.
“But liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle,” the columnist declared at the outset of his piece, adding that the West Coast offers “a version of progressivism that doesn’t result in progress.”
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Kristof, who was compelled by the Oregon Supreme Court to end his bid for governor in 2021 for failing to meet eligibility requirements, did clarify he does not believe this is a problem with liberalism across the board, and cited examples of how he believes Democratic states do better than Republican ones in general.
“Democratic states enjoy a life expectancy two years longer than Republican states. Per capita G.D.P. in Democratic states is 29 percent higher than in G.O.P. states, and child poverty is lower. Education is generally better in blue states, with more kids graduating from high school and college.”
“The gulf in well-being between blue states and red states is growing wider, not narrower,” he wrote, prompting him to conclude, “So the problem isn’t with liberalism. It’s with West Coast liberalism.”
He went on to point out major issues in California and Oregon, noting that blue states on the East Coast don’t have them.
“The two states with the highest rates of unsheltered homelessness are California and Oregon. The three states with the lowest rates of unsheltered homelessness are all blue ones in the Northeast: Vermont, New York and Maine. Liberal Massachusetts has some of the finest public schools in the country, while liberal Washington and Oregon have below-average high school graduation rates.”
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Kristof added that mental health services for the youth have declined in West Coast blue states, while they have flourished at the other end of the country. Additionally, drug use is up in the west and down in “the northeast.” The murder rate is seeing the same corresponding dynamic as well, he noted.
He then offered his theories on why Democratic Party leadership appears “less effective on the West Coast,” stating, “my take is that the West Coast’s central problem is not so much that it’s unserious as that it’s infected with an ideological purity that is focused more on intentions than on oversight and outcomes.”
“Politics always is part theater, but out West too often we settle for being performative rather than substantive.”
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Kristof provided examples, like the fact that Oregon took money from an already “tight education budget” to put tampons in boys’ restrooms in elementary schools, “including boys’ restrooms in kindergartens.”
He also mentioned Portland setting up the “Portland Freedom Fund,” a volunteer group that pays bail for people of color. He explained how it paid bail for a man after he was arrested for allegedly threatening the life of his girlfriend. Once he got out of jail, he murdered the woman.
Kristof continued, noting that despite being inspired by anti-racist Critical Race theorists like Ibram X. Kendi, West Coast leaders have “impeded home construction in ways that made cities unaffordable, especially for people of color.”
“We let increasing numbers of people struggle with homelessness, particularly Black and brown people. Black people in Portland are also murdered at higher rates than in cities more notorious for violence, and Seattle and Portland have some of the greatest racial disparities in arrests in the country,” he wrote.
Driving the point home, he added, “I think intentions and framing can matter, but it’s absolutely true that good intentions are not enough. What matters is improving opportunities and quality of life, and the best path to do that is a relentless empiricism.”
At the end of the column, Kristof concluded, “We need to get our act together. Less purity and more pragmatism would go a long way. But perhaps the first step must be the humility to acknowledge our failures.”
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