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The Progressive Experiment Is Failing America’s Cities

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Michael Shellenberger joins Emily Jashinsky to discuss how leftists’ drug policies are contributing to declining urban hubs and inhumane street conditions.

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On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, author Michael Shellenberger joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss how leftists’ drug policies are contributing to declining urban hubs and inhumane street conditions.

“One of the things that happened is just that they basically ended both in the United States but more heavily in California and more heavily in San Francisco, we just liberalized drug use … so that now basically, there’s no consequence for criminal behaviors that are related to one’s addiction or drug use. I would say that my change of mind was maybe a little bit less dramatic than the one around energy and environment but certainly, I strongly believe that there should be consequences for breaking the law. I think in the past, I never imagined it would spiral out of control in the way that it has.”

Shellenberger said progressivism has created drug policies that do not promote rehabilitation and health, which is inhumane and lacking the social justice leftists often preach.

“You hear a lot of people say completely incorrectly that crime is caused by inequality, the idea that people are sort of forced to commit crimes. … It’s total nonsense. I mean, there’s literally never been any evidence for any of that,” Shellenberger said. “It’s just ideological but I think that that’s a big part of what I write about in ‘San Fransicko,’ you know, both in terms of the justification given for things like shoplifting and drug use and public camping but also for things like defunding the police and anti-incarceration things that have actually been pretty terrible for poor and black communities.”

You can find Shellenberger’s book “San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities” here.