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In April, there were 9 Republican mayors in America’s 50 biggest cities. In May, that number fell to 8.
Democrats are celebrating Omaha’s mayoral election win as proof that Republicans are out of step with America, when it’s really evidence how the nation’s cities have fallen out of step with America. There was a time when America’s cities were symbols of progress, but they have long since become sinkholes of decline, clinging to a handful of industries that employ a tiny fraction of their population as evidence of their relevance.
When Americans think of big cities, they think of tall buildings and social problems.
The Democratic Party’s stranglehold on major cities isn’t evidence of hope, but of despair. It’s not a triumph for democracy, but a sign that democracy no longer operates in major cities where elections are determined by networks of taxpayer-funded community groups, unions and other organizations that act as voter turnout operations for the Democrats in exchange for power and money.
Take the Omaha election which Democrats and the media are still triumphantly celebrating as a mayor victory for their side. John Ewing, the Democrat candidate, beat incumbent Mayor Jean Stothert by 53,322 to 40,420 out of a population of around half a million. What was the rest of Omaha doing? Not voting. And that’s the majority ‘vote’.
Buttigieg built his ‘Mayor Pete’ brand on winning 80% of the vote in South Bend. But that 80% was 8,515 votes in a city of over 100,000. Democrats have taken control of election systems in major cities, but just because the media builds cults of personalities around them doesn’t mean that they’re winning the hearts and minds of the people.
Why are so few people turning out to vote? It’s not just Republicans boycotting a rigged process, but an apolitical majority that believe the system is crooked and sees no reason to take part in it. Republican mayors may be disappearing from major cities, but voters are disappearing even faster.
In 2023, only 35% of Chicago voters turned out for the final round of the mayoral election. In a city of 2.6 million, around 600,000 voted. And considering Chicago’s history of undead electioneering, who is to say how many of the 600,000 were alive. But when the living won’t vote, it falls to the dead to take their place.
The Democrats made universal voting their brand. The party fights to have everyone, illegal aliens, criminals and minors, vote. It drags out Election Day for a whole month. No excuse absentee ballots and drop boxes on every corner should have led to unprecedented levels of public participation, but instead the easier it is to vote, the less the public votes. That’s because the public sees no sign of change and no reason to bother. Elections and democracy are not the same thing. Under the Soviet Union, citizens were hectored into going out to vote even though there was nothing to vote for.
But how much is there to vote for in cities that would be likely to immolate themselves than allow a Republican to win? The question isn’t just about party or even democracy. When voting for change is impossible, then voting becomes a ritual with no substance, and taking part in it validates the claim of the authorities to represent the people.
What happens though when, as in Omaha or Chicago, they represent some 10% of the people (and that is assuming that they’re honest enough to cheat at everything except elections) then that’s not democracy, it’s the tyranny of a minority claiming unlimited power for the sake of all the people too stupid to vote for it.
The more power they monopolize, the more the silent majority shuns their elections.
The number of Republican mayors will likely continue to fall for the foreseeable future, but so will the ratio of voter participation and that actually is a ‘crisis of democracy’. In poll after poll, Americans are turning on the entire political system, but the Democrats don’t care as long as they can lay claim to the support of 1 in 10 members of the populace.
Benjamin Franklin famously said of the Constitutional Convention’s work that it would be a “Republic if you can keep it.” Franklin had wanted a republic, but Democrats don’t want a democracy. And certainly not a Republic. Nor do they want any kind of government that the citizenry can keep.
America’s cities are imploding because there are no checks and balances on the corruption of a political class. Will the last urban voter turn out the lights?
