Richard Nixon did it.
That is the story that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is telling, and he is sticking to it.
Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Don’t believe me? I wouldn’t if I were you, so don’t feel bad. It is like a Babylon Bee headline come to life. Except these days Babylon Bee headlines become reality almost daily.
Over 100 people were shot in Chicago last weekend, including 18 fatally.
Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed it on Richard Nixon in his press conference today.
No, that is not a joke. pic.twitter.com/dorETLl5os
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 8, 2024
Brandon Johnson is the leading member of the “root causes” school of crime excuses, and his press conference yesterday on the crime wave Chicago is experiencing was a master class in blaming racists for the crimes that Black young men are committing against other Blacks.
Shootings are totally out of control, and Kimberly Foxx, the Cook County Attorney, refuses to prosecute gun possession charges because the criminals are disproportionately Black. Johnson believes that the solution to crime is some form of socialist-style social work and blaming Whites for what Black kids are doing.
But blaming Richard Nixon is a new low.
DEADLY WEEKEND: 109 people were shot; 19 of them killed in multiple shootings over the long July 4th weekend in #Chicago. Mayor Brandon Johnson, addressed the issue today along with the city’s Police Superintendent, Larry Snelling, “We have to really stop and think about the… pic.twitter.com/lKepiwibMZ
— newsbell (@newsbell) July 8, 2024
The police superintendent offered a more practical solution: lock up the criminals, which sounds too Nixonesque for Johnson. Reparations are more his speed, I suppose.
A cynic might wonder if allowing the murder spree to continue is a budget measure. After all, the fewer Blacks left alive in Chicago the lower the bill will be for the reparations.
But no, even I am not that cynical. I think Johnson really is this stupid and this blinded by ideology. Unlike Johnson, he isn’t spouting all this garbage for cynical reasons.
He was, after all, a teacher union leader, and no group of people is quite as stupid and blinded by ideology as teacher union leaders.
Parents: What’s your plan to improve the dismal quality of education?
Becky Pringle: WE HAVE TO WIN ALLLLL THE THINGS!!!
Parents: Isn’t that unrealistic?
BP: WE WILL KEEP GOING FORWARD!!!
Parents: But you’re driving us off a cliff!
BP: WE ARE THE NEA!!! THAT’S WHAT WE DO!!! pic.twitter.com/ubNHORthn0
— Jason Bedrick 🇺🇸🎗️🇮🇱 (@JasonBedrick) July 7, 2024
Brandon Johnson no doubt wants to win ALL THE THINGS! too, even if it requires the death of lots of young Black men in Chicago.
Chicago used to be an impressive city, but its citizens have chosen to follow Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco into a totally preventable death spiral.
To Chicago’s credit, the citizens did dump Lori Lightfoot–an equally awful mayor–and almost 48% voted against Brandon Johnson for mayor.
Johnson won on the backs of the public sector unions, without whom he would have been soundly defeated. It is a classic example of the government vs. the people. When the government gets big enough, it becomes the largest special interest group in society and beating it back becomes almost impossible.
There are nearly 60,000 public employees working for the city and the public school system, and probably a ton more who work for the state, the county, and the federal government. That is a HUGE voting bloc and a high-propensity one at that. I wouldn’t be surprised if 25-30% of Johnson’s votes came from that bloc alone. Throw in the AWFLs and the identity voters and you don’t have enough practical people left to vote in a sane mayor.
So instead, Chicago has a mayor who can say–almost crying from despair–that mass murder in Chicago is the result of Richard Nixon’s election in 1968.
We live in insane times, my friend. Insane times.
