Over a century ago urban progressives, both Democrat and Republican, resolved to clean up “The Shame of the Cities.” They thought government run welfare programs would wean the poor away from the corrupt Democratic political machines like Tammany Hall. They were wrong. Corrupt political practices metastasized throughout urban governments across the nation and captured the Democratic Party which in turn captured the unions and finally the administrative state.
Cleaning up the cities is, and always has been, the key to the salvation of the nation.
I sure hope the top brass and strategists in the Republican party are reading your synopses (especially this one!!!), finding the immense value in them, and formulating winning strategies to hand the degenacrats 2x the "L" 's they've handed the country club repubs for the last 80 years.
I’m praying for the revival of small towns across America, where people can feel like they are part of a community and support each other. Always appreciate your insights. There’s more truth here than you will get in Sociology 101!
You left out the most important factor of them all - public money for education. Use your gifted ability to read census data and do this simple experiment: compare all the factors you list to the single variable of the added public spending that began with the Johnson administration and has continued ever since. None of the list factors explains this change: rural counties with private colleges and ag schools were no more Democratic than the adjacent counties that had no schools. Now every place that has a school - funded entirely by student loans and public grants - has a politics equal to the largest cities.
Thanks Capt. K, this article hits a nerve with me. Living here in the San Francisco Bay Area we are surrounded by the nasty white liberal disease. I've recently decided that those who ascribe to these beliefs are soulless beings. They are arrogant, unfair, fake and unkind people. I don't think they like common sense. They seem to run from it! My sympathies go out to the people living in areas that are being affected by this evil disease. Thank you for addressing this issue. It's a huge help, and lifts my spirits as I carry on.
"...the cities are going to be controlled by Democrats, who dial up the white liberal hatred and ensure their minorities are barely getting by to create a toxic winning formula." This is particularly true as you pointed out in most cities. Corruption by politicians is rampant. i.e. -Baltimore got $180M for city project to help the poor as part of a spending bill that was passed by Congress. Two years later the question was "where did the money go?" In reality most went into the fat congressman or congresswoman's offshore account. They spent some on urban transit improvements so they have something to point to but the money never goes to help the citizens and the congress folks never get challenged to prove where the money went and the poor remain poor!
As with Lisa below I live in the Bay area. We get a lot of transit upgrades here. Now BART is going to San Jose and will work in conjunction with the light rail and city buses (VTA), a SJ boondoggle that infringes on regular traffic (of course the city runs Bart over existing streets and local traffic is always impacted while in development} and is often seen with no more than 5 people aboard. Total BS. It's a systematic approach to getting people in to living quarters where they can walk 15 min to work and out of their cars. Car pool lanes was their first attempt, then came monthly fees top access another type of car pool lane. Where does all the money needed for these "transit improvements" come from?
Regardless of all the "improvements," traffic on the major highways, 101, 85, 80, 280 is always a packed commute. So all of the urban transit is a negative when considering travel to work. It does little for those living 2-3 hours away and commute traffic remains a parking lot.
Almost all people living and working here are fiercely independent and will drive 2 hours one way to go to work. Owning a home costs have to be the highest or near highest in the country. This forces blue and white collar workers to look for affordable housing that is hours away from their work areas.
Seth, you failed to spotlight the absolute destruction the 19th Amendment has brought to America. With 75% of American women voting blue, no matter who. These emotional scare tactics that the Communist Left use, works amazingly well on Feminist women. Collectivists by nature, women are what keep the Infanticide loving Left alive.
Seth, in the Northeast States like mAssachusetts, "Higher" education institutions and education in general, has basically become a liberal brainwashing exercise. There is no value to education anymore here. This is certainly another reason why the democrats control these areas. Critical thinking isn't taught anymore. Save a mind and go to trade school!
Washington state is run by one city, Seattle, and one county, King county
With Vancouver in Clark County a short second….
The one area I don’t think you really touched on was a term called “liberal guilt” …. I think of it as not wanting to get their hands dirty so they would rather throw money. And then there is the God, not god conversation within urban boundaries.
I have been sad about this in my beloved state of Maryland.
Election cheating costs all of us so much.
19 years of PTA volunteering at school, county, and a bit at the state level.
Never could understand why it was so hard for the right things to be done for our children in public schools, especially children coming to public schools with disadvantages who needed excellence in public schools the most. So many teachers, administrators, parents, and students voluntarily giving so much time and money to make things better for everyone.
Realizing over time that Baltimore City Schools .... had 80% of their annual operating budget paid for by the State of Maryland and yet had a policy on their website of what to do when classrooms got below 60 degrees in the winter ..... and a teacher's comment on facebook saying that 25% of the classroom spaces or something like that .....have to be below 60 degrees and they have to move the children around to warmer spaces to try to stay within those parameters or something like that.
Somewhere there seemed to be some association between "Kenneth N. Harris, Sr. (July 17, 1963 – September 20, 2008), a member of the Democratic Party, was a candidate for Baltimore City Council President. He served on the city council since 1999, representing Baltimore's 4th Council District, until 2007. On September 20, 2008, Harris was shot and killed outside of a jazz club in northeast Baltimore." source wikipedia .................. as if he was investigating corruption in the maintenance and construction of Baltimore City Public Schools.
We had PTA Night in Annapolis once a year and met a lot of very lovely people, State Senators, State Delegates ..... it took awhile to realize that everyone in the state is operating the best that they can presumably within a ruthless election system.
"Much of the Eighth Ward that had been populated by the Irish became the Tenth Ward just before the turn of the 20th century, when the boundaries of the city’s election districts were reconfigured. [************************************] The new boundaries, which still exist today, [2019] were the rectangle bounded by E. Preston Street, N. Caroline Street, E. Monument Street and The Fallsway. [*******************************]
Thereafter, the Tenth Ward was known, in a rather high-minded and exalted fashion, as “The Gibraltar of Democracy.”
The Hendricks Club was born in the days when U.S. Sen. Arthur Pue Gorman, of Howard County, and I. Freeman Rasin, the undisputed citywide boss of Baltimore, reigned supreme in Maryland as “The Ring.”
When Rasin died in 1907, the mantle of citywide boss fell to John J. “Sonny” Mahon, who drew heavily on support from the Hendricks Club.
It was said in those days that on Election Day, the returns from the Tenth Ward precincts would be held back until word came from downtown as to the number of votes needed to put the organization ticket over the top."
2. March 2023 article..... "Maryland elections administrator — currently the second-longest-serving chief elections official in the nation — is stepping down from the post after more than 25 years."
3. 1994 Maryland Governor's election ..... won by 5,993 votes with 6000 votes without signatures from Baltimore City. per Republican candidate Ellen Sauerbrey ...comment I saw on facebook sometime since 2020 ..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Sauerbrey
4. It goes on and on .... Nancy Pelosi's father was a Congressman from Maryland's 3rd congressional district.... then Mayor of Baltimore 1947-1959 .... then her brother was Mayor 1967-1971 over the time of the 1968 riots ....
Baltimore's population began it's decline during the time of her father's time as mayor.
Only increased by a few thousand during Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's time as mayor 2012 / 2014 but was interrupted and sent into another descent with the organized 2015 Freddie Gray riots and the federal government forced the mayor who had run on increasing Balt City population by 10,000 to force the police to stand down to presumably protect the $165 million annual heroin trafficking industry which began during the 1950's when Nancy Pelosi's father was mayor per this article.
5. the 1997-2023 head of the Maryland State Elections Administrator was also
"[Linda] Lamone is also chair of the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, the panel that makes recommendations to the state’s highest court on sanctioning lawyers, based on its own investigations, but said she has no plans to retire from the unpaid board." excerpt from link in #2 above
and
"Linda H. Lamone, who sat on Maryland’s Attorney Grievance Commission for nearly 30 years and chaired it for 15, will leave the job when her term ends in June. [2024]
Lamone also retired from her more well-known position as the state’s elections administrator in August.
“Transitions are best effectuated when the incumbent is available to assist in an organized and hopefully effortless process,” Lamone told The Daily Record in an email."
excerpt above from February 2024 article.................
September 2009 article Linda Lamone and State Senate President Mike Miller [a state senator representing the 27th District (Calvert, Charles, and Prince George's Counties) from 1975 to 2020 and served as its President from 1987 to 2020 ... source wikipedia]
"Imagine a senior state employee appointed by the governor to a politically sensitive position. Now imagine the following hypothetical situation: the employee commits a heinous crime covered by every TV station in the state. Imagine this employee is then convicted and imprisoned. One would think that such an employee – any state employee, really – would be terminated from employment by the state in such a hypothetical circumstance.
You would be right – EXCEPT for one key position in state government: the State Administrator of Elections. Under current state law, that position would continue to be occupied by its current holder for a potentially indefinite period.
That law is commonly known as the “Linda Lamone for Life” law.
Over a century ago urban progressives, both Democrat and Republican, resolved to clean up “The Shame of the Cities.” They thought government run welfare programs would wean the poor away from the corrupt Democratic political machines like Tammany Hall. They were wrong. Corrupt political practices metastasized throughout urban governments across the nation and captured the Democratic Party which in turn captured the unions and finally the administrative state.
Cleaning up the cities is, and always has been, the key to the salvation of the nation.
I sure hope the top brass and strategists in the Republican party are reading your synopses (especially this one!!!), finding the immense value in them, and formulating winning strategies to hand the degenacrats 2x the "L" 's they've handed the country club repubs for the last 80 years.
I’m praying for the revival of small towns across America, where people can feel like they are part of a community and support each other. Always appreciate your insights. There’s more truth here than you will get in Sociology 101!
You left out the most important factor of them all - public money for education. Use your gifted ability to read census data and do this simple experiment: compare all the factors you list to the single variable of the added public spending that began with the Johnson administration and has continued ever since. None of the list factors explains this change: rural counties with private colleges and ag schools were no more Democratic than the adjacent counties that had no schools. Now every place that has a school - funded entirely by student loans and public grants - has a politics equal to the largest cities.
Thanks Capt. K, this article hits a nerve with me. Living here in the San Francisco Bay Area we are surrounded by the nasty white liberal disease. I've recently decided that those who ascribe to these beliefs are soulless beings. They are arrogant, unfair, fake and unkind people. I don't think they like common sense. They seem to run from it! My sympathies go out to the people living in areas that are being affected by this evil disease. Thank you for addressing this issue. It's a huge help, and lifts my spirits as I carry on.
Because they GET, and don’t want to give up, FREE STUFF. Now, I’ll read your why’s.
Absolutely they will vote for free stuff not realizing that it is never free.
AWESOME INSIGHTS
"...the cities are going to be controlled by Democrats, who dial up the white liberal hatred and ensure their minorities are barely getting by to create a toxic winning formula." This is particularly true as you pointed out in most cities. Corruption by politicians is rampant. i.e. -Baltimore got $180M for city project to help the poor as part of a spending bill that was passed by Congress. Two years later the question was "where did the money go?" In reality most went into the fat congressman or congresswoman's offshore account. They spent some on urban transit improvements so they have something to point to but the money never goes to help the citizens and the congress folks never get challenged to prove where the money went and the poor remain poor!
As with Lisa below I live in the Bay area. We get a lot of transit upgrades here. Now BART is going to San Jose and will work in conjunction with the light rail and city buses (VTA), a SJ boondoggle that infringes on regular traffic (of course the city runs Bart over existing streets and local traffic is always impacted while in development} and is often seen with no more than 5 people aboard. Total BS. It's a systematic approach to getting people in to living quarters where they can walk 15 min to work and out of their cars. Car pool lanes was their first attempt, then came monthly fees top access another type of car pool lane. Where does all the money needed for these "transit improvements" come from?
Regardless of all the "improvements," traffic on the major highways, 101, 85, 80, 280 is always a packed commute. So all of the urban transit is a negative when considering travel to work. It does little for those living 2-3 hours away and commute traffic remains a parking lot.
Almost all people living and working here are fiercely independent and will drive 2 hours one way to go to work. Owning a home costs have to be the highest or near highest in the country. This forces blue and white collar workers to look for affordable housing that is hours away from their work areas.
Seth, you failed to spotlight the absolute destruction the 19th Amendment has brought to America. With 75% of American women voting blue, no matter who. These emotional scare tactics that the Communist Left use, works amazingly well on Feminist women. Collectivists by nature, women are what keep the Infanticide loving Left alive.
Re Repub mayors in large cities -- if you are referring to Jacksonville FL, the Democrat mayor of that city is Donna Deegan.
Ugh, forgot about her. Thanks.
Seth, in the Northeast States like mAssachusetts, "Higher" education institutions and education in general, has basically become a liberal brainwashing exercise. There is no value to education anymore here. This is certainly another reason why the democrats control these areas. Critical thinking isn't taught anymore. Save a mind and go to trade school!
See liberals, white
https://nypost.com/2025/07/05/opinion/how-americas-experts-burned-their-last-shreds-of-credibility?utm_source=messages&utm_campaign=android_nyp&utm_medium=social
Fair enough 😄
As usual, your comments are extremely astute ..
Washington state is run by one city, Seattle, and one county, King county
With Vancouver in Clark County a short second….
The one area I don’t think you really touched on was a term called “liberal guilt” …. I think of it as not wanting to get their hands dirty so they would rather throw money. And then there is the God, not god conversation within urban boundaries.
Right on Target, Oh Great One!!!
Really helpful to understanding.
heard that she was looking into corruption in elections in Baltimore City
heard from a real estate person that there are never any murders in Roland Park....
since hers in 2016 there was 1 more it seems if you are searching on "roland park murder"
July 2016 article
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/molly-macauley-renowned-space-economist-killed-while-walking-her-dogs/
V. Urban Corruption and Election Rigging
I have been sad about this in my beloved state of Maryland.
Election cheating costs all of us so much.
19 years of PTA volunteering at school, county, and a bit at the state level.
Never could understand why it was so hard for the right things to be done for our children in public schools, especially children coming to public schools with disadvantages who needed excellence in public schools the most. So many teachers, administrators, parents, and students voluntarily giving so much time and money to make things better for everyone.
Realizing over time that Baltimore City Schools .... had 80% of their annual operating budget paid for by the State of Maryland and yet had a policy on their website of what to do when classrooms got below 60 degrees in the winter ..... and a teacher's comment on facebook saying that 25% of the classroom spaces or something like that .....have to be below 60 degrees and they have to move the children around to warmer spaces to try to stay within those parameters or something like that.
Somewhere there seemed to be some association between "Kenneth N. Harris, Sr. (July 17, 1963 – September 20, 2008), a member of the Democratic Party, was a candidate for Baltimore City Council President. He served on the city council since 1999, representing Baltimore's 4th Council District, until 2007. On September 20, 2008, Harris was shot and killed outside of a jazz club in northeast Baltimore." source wikipedia .................. as if he was investigating corruption in the maintenance and construction of Baltimore City Public Schools.
We had PTA Night in Annapolis once a year and met a lot of very lovely people, State Senators, State Delegates ..... it took awhile to realize that everyone in the state is operating the best that they can presumably within a ruthless election system.
1. August, 2019 article..
https://marylandmatters.org/2019/08/06/erasing-history-baltimore-renames-park-strikes-all-trace-of-iconic-congressman/
excerpt.........................
"Much of the Eighth Ward that had been populated by the Irish became the Tenth Ward just before the turn of the 20th century, when the boundaries of the city’s election districts were reconfigured. [************************************] The new boundaries, which still exist today, [2019] were the rectangle bounded by E. Preston Street, N. Caroline Street, E. Monument Street and The Fallsway. [*******************************]
Thereafter, the Tenth Ward was known, in a rather high-minded and exalted fashion, as “The Gibraltar of Democracy.”
The Hendricks Club was born in the days when U.S. Sen. Arthur Pue Gorman, of Howard County, and I. Freeman Rasin, the undisputed citywide boss of Baltimore, reigned supreme in Maryland as “The Ring.”
When Rasin died in 1907, the mantle of citywide boss fell to John J. “Sonny” Mahon, who drew heavily on support from the Hendricks Club.
It was said in those days that on Election Day, the returns from the Tenth Ward precincts would be held back until word came from downtown as to the number of votes needed to put the organization ticket over the top."
2. March 2023 article..... "Maryland elections administrator — currently the second-longest-serving chief elections official in the nation — is stepping down from the post after more than 25 years."
https://marylandmatters.org/2023/03/29/linda-lamone-marylands-long-serving-elections-director-announces-retirement/
3. 1994 Maryland Governor's election ..... won by 5,993 votes with 6000 votes without signatures from Baltimore City. per Republican candidate Ellen Sauerbrey ...comment I saw on facebook sometime since 2020 ..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Sauerbrey
4. It goes on and on .... Nancy Pelosi's father was a Congressman from Maryland's 3rd congressional district.... then Mayor of Baltimore 1947-1959 .... then her brother was Mayor 1967-1971 over the time of the 1968 riots ....
Baltimore's population began it's decline during the time of her father's time as mayor.
Only increased by a few thousand during Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's time as mayor 2012 / 2014 but was interrupted and sent into another descent with the organized 2015 Freddie Gray riots and the federal government forced the mayor who had run on increasing Balt City population by 10,000 to force the police to stand down to presumably protect the $165 million annual heroin trafficking industry which began during the 1950's when Nancy Pelosi's father was mayor per this article.
https://www.marylandrecovery.com/blog/how-the-heroin-epidemic-is-affecting-baltimore-maryland
5. the 1997-2023 head of the Maryland State Elections Administrator was also
"[Linda] Lamone is also chair of the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, the panel that makes recommendations to the state’s highest court on sanctioning lawyers, based on its own investigations, but said she has no plans to retire from the unpaid board." excerpt from link in #2 above
and
"Linda H. Lamone, who sat on Maryland’s Attorney Grievance Commission for nearly 30 years and chaired it for 15, will leave the job when her term ends in June. [2024]
Lamone also retired from her more well-known position as the state’s elections administrator in August.
“Transitions are best effectuated when the incumbent is available to assist in an organized and hopefully effortless process,” Lamone told The Daily Record in an email."
excerpt above from February 2024 article.................
https://thedailyrecord.com/2024/02/20/longtime-chair-of-maryland-attorney-grievance-commission-to-step-down/
and
September 2009 article Linda Lamone and State Senate President Mike Miller [a state senator representing the 27th District (Calvert, Charles, and Prince George's Counties) from 1975 to 2020 and served as its President from 1987 to 2020 ... source wikipedia]
https://montgomeryperspective.com/2009/09/02/marylands-administrator-for-life-part_02/
June 2020 article
https://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=13029
ADAM PAGNUCCO
REPEAL THE LINDA LAMONE FOR LIFE LAW
JUNE 4, 2020 ADAM PAGNUCCO
By Adam Pagnucco.
"Imagine a senior state employee appointed by the governor to a politically sensitive position. Now imagine the following hypothetical situation: the employee commits a heinous crime covered by every TV station in the state. Imagine this employee is then convicted and imprisoned. One would think that such an employee – any state employee, really – would be terminated from employment by the state in such a hypothetical circumstance.
You would be right – EXCEPT for one key position in state government: the State Administrator of Elections. Under current state law, that position would continue to be occupied by its current holder for a potentially indefinite period.
That law is commonly known as the “Linda Lamone for Life” law.
It must be repealed."