A former Vox reporter turned independent journalist delved into the reason why there is a massive divide between Americans today and it turns out that the reason behind it is "liberal hypocrisy" and not the GOP, as most of the left would assume.
Johnny Harris, a widely followed journalist on YouTube recently spoke to New York Times editorial board writer Binyamin Appelbaum, who described American politics as a "we versus them" situation in which one party always stands in the way of the other's plans for progress and development.
But in the New York Times opinion piece, Appelbaum says that there's no "them" standing in the way, especially in blue states. He argued, "There's just the we of Democrats and their supporters and they get to decide what policies should look like in those states and that is an opportunity for them to implement their vision." Their vision, however, is rather skewed. For a party that seeks inequality at every turn, Democrats seem to shy away from implementing plans for true equality to be felt by regular folks.
For the New York Times opinion piece, Harris analyzed the 2020 Democratic Party Platform, in which they outlined their plans and visions for the U.S. He then posed the question, "What do Democrats do with all the power?" Harris then zoomed into the topic of housing, specifically in California, which he described as "the quintessential liberal state," in which Democratic leaders hold majority control. However, it is in this same state that fair housing is not being implemented.
"Housing in America should be stable, accessible, safe, healthy, energy efficient, and above all, affordable." This is a direct quote from the 2020 Democratic Party Platform. However, in the blue state of California, Appelbaum argues that housing in the state is so high that it is "simply unaffordable." He added that California's rate of building housing has drastically slowed down over time, thereby unable to keep pace with the growth of California's population. The result? Too many people with no place to live.
Harris argued that in blue states like California, there are a lot of Democratic supporters who show up to rallies and voice their desire for equality, but who are also "actively fighting to keep their neighborhoods" filled with single-family homes versus "higher-density buildings like duplexes or apartment complexes," which would have solved the housing problems in the state. Legislators, however, maintain policies that let California keep the big houses for a smaller number of people.
In Palo Alto alone, there is a zone for single family homes but the recent increase in people coming in to take new jobs has caused an imbalance, as more and more people are looking for affordable housing. The imbalance is in the data: San Francisco added 676,000 new jobs but only 176,000 new housing units. When the City Council decided to convert a two-acre plot of land to affordable housing facilities, "the overwhelmingly liberal residents of Palo Alto decided to hold a vote to overturn the decision," Harris said, to maintain its low-density, single-family housing format.
Appelbaum recounted how Democrats often begin their arguments with how they are all for affordable housing and yet oppose the creation of such affordable housing because they have "concerns," which eventually hinder any affordable housing projects to come to completion. The New York Times came to the conclusion that "It is in the blue states where affordable housing is often hardest to find, there are some of the most acute disparities in education funding and economic inequality is increasing most quickly."
The Gateway Pundit pointed out how the "liberal hypocrisy" is apparent in the way that blue states are where the housing crisis is most apparent and where there are "tens of thousands of homeless people" living on the streets. The report concluded that Democrat-run states are "where economic inequality is increasing most quickly in this country."
