American journalist Tucker Carlson was interviewed as part of the World Government Summit in Dubai earlier this week, and if people were outraged by his recent interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin, they were likely apoplectic after his remarks in Dubai about America’s cities:
“[W]hat was radicalizing, very shocking and very disturbing for me was the city of Moscow ... the biggest city in Europe, 13 million people. And ... it is so much cleaner and safer ... than any city in the United States. ... How did that happen? ... If you can't use your subway, for example, as many people are afraid to in New York City because it's too dangerous, you have to sort of wonder, isn't that the ultimate measure of leadership? ... [I]t's radicalizing for an American to go to Moscow ... to Singapore, to Tokyo, to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, because these cities, no matter how we're told they're run and on what principles they're run, are wonderful places to live that don't have rampant inflation where you're not going to get raped.”
How did it happen? How did the quality of life in American cities become so awful?
It is leftism -- its philosophy and politics -- in action.
The American concept of ordered liberty rests upon the foundation of citizens whose behavior is restrained by their own beliefs, personal values, education and upbringing. Founding Father (and second president) John Adams is often quoted on this point. In his 1798 Letter to the Massachusetts Militia, Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Now, 226 years later, the Judeo-Christian values that formed the basis for America as a nation are undermined by the Left, characterized as threats (like “Christian nationalism”) or deliberately distorted by those with political control over our cities who manipulate the public with flaccid definitions of concepts like "freedom," "compassion" and "diversity."
Why are the homeless, the mentally ill and the drug-addicted permitted to live, take drugs and even urinate and defecate in the streets? What self-respecting city government would allow piles of human poop to proliferate on the sidewalk?
We’re told that’s “compassion.” Wrong. It's cowardice.
Why are parades of naked adults simulating sex acts allowed in public, in the clear view of children?
That is trumpeted as “liberty.” No, it isn’t; it's a license.
Why are thieves allowed to steal from businesses without fear of prosecution? Why are criminals released without bail after committing violent crimes? Why do so many students think they can scream obscenities at their teachers or attack other students?
Today’s “experts” insist that protecting property and demanding self-control is "racist." Nonsense. Allowing crime and violence isn’t "anti-racism”; it's anarchy.
Tucker Carlson’s critics will no doubt point out the authoritarian control of the governments that run the clean and safe cities he praised -- just as they criticize El Salvador's recently reelected President Nayib Bukele, who has cleaned up that small country with widespread arrests and incarceration of tens of thousands of gang members whose rampant crime made El Salvador unlivable.
The United States is hardly in a position to criticize El Salvador. Under the guise of “freedom,” the elites in our entertainment industry, media, and academia routinely promote behavior that is both personally and societally destructive. At the same time, those in control of our government -- which is increasingly authoritarian -- use their power to go after Christians who are peacefully trying to persuade pregnant women to keep their babies. They attack parents trying to keep porn out of school libraries and classrooms, and biological males out of their daughters' sports teams, locker rooms and bathrooms. They allow roving mobs to burn whole sections of cities, killing dozens and doing billions of dollars in damage, but prosecute those who attempt to defend those businesses and their owners, just as they prosecute individuals who defend themselves or defend helpless passengers on city subways.
Our government censors those trying to tell the American public the truth. It imports crime and poverty by allowing migrants to pour into this country by the millions, ignoring the potential terrorists, the gang members who will go on to commit violent crimes, those who traffic women and children for sex slavery, or import the fentanyl that's killing 100,000 Americans a year. And in “no bail” states like New York and Illinois, migrants who do commit crimes are put back on the streets, able to re-offend.
At least the authoritarian governments in some countries use their power to enforce order. Ours uses its power to facilitate chaos.
John Adams’ 1798 letter holds warnings that are just as accurate today as they were then:
“[S]hould the People of America ... become capable of that deep ... simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candour frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by ... morality and Religion.”
We are fast becoming the “miserable Habitation” Adams predicted. But neither Vladimir Putin nor Tucker Carlson nor Donald Trump is the real threat to our country, our safety, our political stability and economic prosperity, our way of life, and our children’s future.
It is what we have let ourselves become, and we have to stop. Stop ignoring it. Stop excusing it. And above all, stop voting for the people whose policies cause it.
To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.