It’s no secret that Philadelphia’s voters elected a mayor and district attorney so incompetent that the city has experienced its worst violent crime surge in three centuries of its history. This is mainly because of the radical (and incompetent) left-wing criminal justice policies and reforms that were put into effect during their terms. Nor is it a secret that Philadelphia is one of the worst poverty-stricken cities in the nation. It is consistently ranked as the “poorest” of the country’s biggest cities.
Last week, a former Democratic City Council member was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted on bribery and fraud charges. Among his crimes was his involvement in a scheme in which he tried to force the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to use labor unions to install MRI machines. Bobby Henon attempted to extort a hospital dedicated to helping terminally ill children to make money. There were other crimes too, but this was the most egregious.
As a lifelong resident of the City of Brotherly Love, its continued allegiance to Democrats boggles my mind. No matter the horrors of the reality of living in the city, Philadelphians overwhelmingly continue to vote for Democrats who just keep making things worse. Something has to change. It’s time, well beyond time really, for Philadelphia’s Democratic voters to apologize to the rest of the city for the mess they have caused. Crime, poverty, and corruption are the hallmarks of cities under Democratic control, and it has been since there was an Elvis Presley (the last Republican mayor was elected in 1948). The city’s voters are to blame because they never learn.
Henon won his most recent election in November 2019. During the campaign, it became public knowledge that he was under federal indictment for the crimes mentioned above, including the shakedown of the children’s hospital. Yet the voters still elected him. His opponent at the time, a local community organizer named Pete Smith, tried to warn residents about Henon’s corruption. They didn’t care — they knowingly voted for a crook.
“Henon’s sentencing ends another ugly chapter in Philadelphia politics,” Smith told me. “The stigma of business as usual needs to end because power and corruption will always outweigh constituent service. Bobby Henon was elected to serve the residents of the 6th District but chose to serve a single master, turning his back on everyone who supported him. Although I was not elected, I will always find ways to serve my community. Nothing changes if nothing changes.”
Indeed, nothing changes. Philadelphia’s voters are harming their communities. At some point, people will have to admit that those in cities like Philadelphia who routinely vote to keep the status quo deserve the crime, poverty, and other misfortunes that result from their decisions.