Article Courtesy of The Kim Monson Show

“The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan (R), 40th President of the United States

I’ve always loved this quote from President Reagan because it humorously captures the disconnect between progressive (“liberal” in his day) policies and the reality of the everyday world.

For this latest installment of my Exactly Wrong series, I wanted to talk about how in so many areas of life how Democrats’ ideas, goals and ideals are shown to be incorrect failures when the real-world results become evident. To do this subject justice would take a book (or several). For now, I’ll hit the high points from today’s headlines.

Drug Enforcement Laws

In 2020, Oregon voters passed two ballot measures (#109 and #110) by 56% and 59%, respectively, that decriminalized all drugs and allowed for the use of psilocybin for mental health treatment. Instead of criminal penalties, under these two measures anyone who is cited for possession of drugs would be assessed a fine or be required to take a health assessment.

The Democrat proponents of this law said that people who are addicted to drugs should receive treatment, not jail time. At the same time, Measure 110 required the state to “…develop regulations and create a program responsible for manufacturing and dispensing psilocybin to adults aged 21 or older seeking therapy with a trained facilitator for everything from post-traumatic stress disorder to nicotine dependence”, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Psilocybin, for those who don’t know, is a naturally occurring psychedelic drug that appears in fungi, commonly known as “magic mushrooms”. This hallucinogenic has been used by humans throughout history for religious and other purposes, and appears to have fewer adverse effects than some other drugs.

There is a strong libertarian case for legalization of drugs, given the principles of self-ownership and making one’s own choices. If the costs of drug use were solely borne by the user, then there might be a case for legal drugs. But many of the costs are shifted to others and impact the rest of society as well. To the extent that drug use results in harm to others in the form of increased risk of violence, accidental injury or death, treatment costs and homelessness, there is a case for making the use of such drugs illegal.

In any event, we have the real-world results of drug decriminalization in Oregon, and they are not good. As the Wall Street Journal reports: “People sprawled on sidewalks and using fentanyl with no fear of consequence have become a common sight in cities such as Eugene and Portland. Business owners and local leaders are upset, but so are liberal voters who hoped decriminalization would lead to more people getting help. In reality, few drug users are taking advantage of new state-funded rehabilitation programs.

“The fundamental problem, according to law-enforcement officers and researchers, is that the threat of jail time hasn’t been replaced with a new incentive for people struggling with addiction to seek treatment. Some 6,000 tickets have been issued for drug possession since decriminalization went into effect in 2021, but just 92 people have called and completed assessments needed to connect them to services, according to the nonprofit that operates the helpline.”

Emergency calls for overdoses increased dramatically, and fentanyl overdose deaths increased by “…an estimated 1500% since before the pandemic…”. The pandemic coincides with the legalization of hard drugs, so I think it’s safe to attribute the rise in overdose deaths to that cause.

In reality, to begin drug use is a choice, and addiction notwithstanding, continued drug use is a choice. One way for people to get clean is to be unable to access drugs, such as in a treatment center…or jail, or prison. It might actually help people to get off drugs and alcohol if they are incarcerated for breaking drug laws.

Unrestricted drug use contributes to the homelessness problem which is out of control in Democrat-run cities and states.

Decriminalized drug use increases drug use, which increases other types of crime, including property crimes and violent crimes. (Meanwhile, Democrats want to defund the police and take away our ability to defend ourselves with firearms. It’s mind-boggling.)

Another horrible idea perpetrated by Democrats is the idea of “safe injection sites”. Let’s see. We’re going to set up “safe” places, provide medical equipment and supplies to people who are breaking the law and harming themselves in the process. I can’t get over what a stupid idea this is.

The terrible results of decriminalizing hard drugs became apparent to everyone, including people who voted for it. And now, Oregon is reversing course. The state legislature just recently passed a bill to re-criminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs. This is one clear case of Democrat policy failing in the face of reality.

While they think they may be helping people struggling with drug addiction, the real-world results show that the problems get worse. Democrats are Exactly Wrong on this issue.

Policing and Crime

A discussion on policing and crime is a natural segue from the discussion of decriminalizing drugs, and nowhere is progressive “thought” shown to be more chaotic and disconnected from reality.

I always find it amusingly ironic that progressives – who want to use the power of government over every aspect of our lives – also are deeply distrustful of the police and our military.

Keep in mind, police are the armed agents of the state, who are charged with enforcing the laws that progressives pass. Progressives should LOVE the police since they are the embodiment of the force of government, of which they are so fond.

However, in reality progressives don’t like the police. They don’t want police in our public schools to protect children. They accuse police of brutality and racial prejudice. Sometimes, as after George Floyd died of a drug overdose, they want to defund the police altogether. Two of the most extreme legislators currently in the Colorado General Assembly are “prohibitionists” which means they want to do away with police and our criminal justice system.

The cognitive dissonance involved must be painful. But I digress…

When the police are hobbled by leftist laws that impair their ability to do their job, or when they know that the criminals they arrest now will be back on the street in an hour due to Democrats’ soft on crime policies, crime increases.

Democrats view criminals as victims themselves – victims of our society, of racial discrimination, of anything but their own choices. And so they try to hold criminals blameless and focus instead on “fixing” those things in society that they think are at fault.

As I wrote in my essay Exactly Wrong – Democrats and Crime…Revisited, “When all is said and done, Democrats don’t blame the criminal, they blame society and “the system”. They believe that a criminal’s choice to commit crimes is due to how they were raised, or poverty, or racism, or some other external factor instead of the choices that each individual makes.”

The result of Democrats’ soft-on-crime approach is the crime explosion that we are seeing in major cities all across America – virtually all of which are run by Democrats. This is real-world proof that they are Exactly Wrong on crime.

The Climate Change Cult

One of the most egregious ways that Democrats impair human flourishing is through their climate change cult which drives much of our public policy. I have written extensively on this topic, including a recent review of Alex Epstein’s excellent book Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal and Natural Gas – Not Less. To sum up my position succinctly: I don’t dispute that the climate changes. Like the weather, it changes constantly, and it is due to natural causes beyond our control. We should be glad we’re not living in an ice age.

Unlike rational people, leftists fervently believe that human beings cause climate change through our use of fossil fuels. Now, as I’ve written elsewhere, fossil fuels are one of the pillars of modern life – the others being limited government and free-market capitalism.

Leftists believe in catastrophic anthropogenic climate change (CAGW) without regard to opposing possibilities, points of view or conflicting or contrary evidence. Their set of beliefs is unsupported by reason and incapable of independent verification. They are rigid in defense of their beliefs and are quite capable of hateful behavior toward “unbelievers”.

Their belief in CAGW leads them to propose many things that are harmful to human beings. Eliminating fossil fuels altogether is just not possible or practical – not if we want to maintain our current quality of life. Climate summits call for massive wealth transfers from the developed world (Western civilization) to the developing world (Third World countries), who suffer from extreme energy poverty that most Americans cannot imagine and know nothing of.

The demand for so-called “renewable” energy sources completely ignores the fact that these energy sources – particularly wind and solar – are very costly, not completely reliable, and always have to be backstopped by fossil fuel generated power.

The Democrats, through their control of much of our national and many state governments, enact policies that actively impair the oil and gas industry, decimate the coal industry, prevent more development of non-fossil fuel means of power generation including hydro and nuclear and make everything more expensive for hard-working Americans.

It’s not only the higher expense related to over-reliance on renewable energy, it’s the blackouts that happen in the summer when electricity demand exceeds the supply or in winter when a storm can cause energy sources to fail.

Germany is an example of a western country that has largely converted to “renewable” energy and they have among the highest electricity costs in the EU.

It’s also worth noting that “renewable” energy only applies to electricity generation, and has nothing to do with where most of our fossil fuels are used: transportation and large-scale industrial uses.

Economics

Another area of policy where Democrats are Exactly Wrong is in the realm of economics. To truly address this area would take volumes, but for now we’ll focus on one thing: minimum wages.

Democrats are very in favor of making it illegal to hire entry level workers through the imposition of minimum wages. There are several reasons they favor these laws, among them their misguided belief that primary breadwinners are working for minimum wages, that people are incapable of developing their skills and education thus moving up the wage ladder, that businesses are a pot of gold for them to exploit, and because unions favor higher minimum wages because many union contracts are tied to minimum wages. Of course, unions contribute heavily to Democrats, helping them get re-elected.

Unfortunately, higher minimum wages have several adverse effects on workers, businesses and consumers. Workers, particularly young people (especially minority youth) miss out on that first job. Some workers are not hired and the work they may have done is spread among existing workers. Businesses have higher costs, thus requiring them to raise prices which affects consumers.

I’ve seen several news articles out of Colorado recently about much-loved restaurants closing their doors for good. Many of these articles cite lower traffic, higher minimum wages and the new FAMLI tax (sorry, “premium”) as reasons why they can no longer afford to stay in business.

Higher minimum wages result in higher unemployment. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “Increasing the minimum wage would have two principal effects on low-wage workers. Most of them would receive higher pay that would increase their family’s income, and some of those families would see their income rise above the federal poverty threshold. But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated, the income of most workers who became jobless would fall substantially, and the share of low-wage workers who were employed would probably fall slightly.”

Of course, for those who lose their jobs, the minimum wage is zero.

Doom Spiral

Democrat policies, taken as a whole, are Exactly Wrong because instead of promoting human flourishing, they create “doom spirals”.

A “doom spiral” is when one factor leads to negative consequences in a system, thereby leading to the creation of other factors which lead to negative consequences, leading to further creation of negative factors in a system.

An example of this is why so many small businesses in a downtown metro area – say Denver – are closing. Less foot traffic due to people staying away from the area due to crime and homelessness concerns lead to lower revenues. Higher costs because of higher minimum wages and FAMLI premiums squeeze the margins needed to stay in business. The business owner must raise prices, which the market may not allow or go out of business.

Fewer businesses in a downtown area create less of an incentive for people to go to that area, leading to more crime and homelessness.

Fewer businesses generating and paying sales and other taxes results on lower government tax receipts, which means that the government is unable to provide necessary services (like police and trash cleanup) that lead to higher crime and homelessness.

And so on.

Once one thing gets out of whack, it easily cascades to more things getting out of whack. Of course, leftists always propose more government involvement as a way to get things back in order, but their ideas never seem to work in the real world.

Getting things back in order is a more difficult task because it requires rational thinking, realistic policy and understanding of human nature.

Denver and Colorado are in a doom spiral due to Democrat governance. Many other Democrat-run cities and states are in similar straits. Our nation hangs in the balance.

It’s up to us to respect reality and reverse the decline.

Richard Turnquist

Richard D. Turnquist is a “libertarian minded, socially moderate, unapologetic supporter of the unalienable rights described in the Declaration of Independence, enumerated and protected by the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.” Richard writes articles on limited government, freedom, and the defense of capitalism—along with book reviews and other general topics—at his blog, To Advance Freedom. If you would like to contact Richard, you can do so at his website, on Twitter, or on his Facebook page.