There is perhaps no better example of Democratic Party dysfunction than what one sees when visiting the aisles of an urban retail store. What you find is merchandise, some of it everyday items such as toothpaste and razor blades, locked away behind plastic cases. This is to prevent retail theft, which has become an epidemic in many, if not most, cities across the country. It is necessary for stores to stoop to this level of inconvenience for law-abiding citizens because thieves are not held accountable. Rather than passing and enforcing laws that punish criminals accountable for their crimes, governments have adopted a conscious policy sacrificing the quality of life of 99% of citizens so the remaining 1% can commit crimes without consequences.One would hope that after the 2024 elections, in which Democrats were punished by voters for their lax policies on crime, the party of the Left would have learned its lesson and adjusted so it was representing voters more accurately on criminal justice troubles. Voters uniformly rejected soft-on-crime candidates nationwide.
But Democrats appear incapable of choosing order over chaos. It is a classic example of that distortion on the Left, which means its adherence to their policy theories rather than doing what works in practice. Not only did 60 House Democrats vote against the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act last month, but now left-wing activist groups are gearing up to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting this commonsense anti-crime bill in the Senate. The fight is a reminder of just how fragile all progress on lowering crime is. If Democrats are put in charge again, crime will rise because criminals will be given a pass.
