Philadelphia’s story is a tale of progressivism’s failure

The July 23 article in The Tribune about Philadelphia, location of the Democratic National Convention, was titled “A city of great income inequality.” In it, the writer describes the city’s virtues along with its many serious problems, one of which is income equality.

What the writer didn’t do is even touch on the elephant in the room — the politics of Philadelphia. Specifically, the last time the city had a mayor who wasn’t a Democrat was 1952.

One would think that 64 years of “progressive” governance would leave any city in excellent shape in all respects, especially those related to jobs, poverty and crime.

But that hasn’t happened in Philadelphia, nor in the vast majority of big cities in our country, virtually all of which have been under Democratic control for decades. High taxes, bloated public employee payrolls, crushing poverty, high rates of violent crime, rampant corruption, inequality and a dearth of job opportunities characterize these cities.

So it seems only right that the Democratic Party meet in Philadelphia to nominate its candidate for president, someone whose policy prescriptions for the entire country mirror those that have failed in America’s biggest cities.

This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 2:34 AM with the headline "Philadelphia’s story is a tale of progressivism’s failure."