This hot take from The Atlantic on why some big cities are 'ungovernable' is something else

Doug P. | 2:25 PM on March 03, 2023

This week, Lori Lightfoot became the first incumbent mayor of Chicago to lose a re-election bid in several decades. But as it turns out she might have been a victim of increasingly ungovernable cities:

Perfect pic.twitter.com/EFLP6Nj28Z

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 3, 2023

Yep, that’s a real take in The Atlantic:

“Until Lori Lightfoot, only one mayor in the past 75 years had been denied a reelection,” @GrahamDavidA writes in The Atlantic Daily. “And she’s not the only U.S. mayor in jeopardy.” https://t.co/X0zTc3RJ7q

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) March 2, 2023

All those cities have something in common, but that can’t possibly be the problem:

"We've tried the same thing over and over and we just can't do it man"

Cities governed by a single party for decades

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 3, 2023

The dots aren’t going to be connected despite the fact that there are only two of them.

"Have you tried electing Democrats?"

"We have and it didn't work!"

"Whelp, I'm all out of ideas."

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) March 3, 2023

Hmmm… have they tried electing more Democrats? https://t.co/9Iw7qEkLuk

— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) March 3, 2023

As for Lightfoot maybe they should consider the possibility that she was just a lousy mayor with policies that made Chicago more dangerous.

Another problem that’s making some mayors look bad is that crime is pouncing:

But more than anything else, crime is weighing mayors down. Crime is not, despite what some politicians might want you to believe, a uniquely urban problem. When violent crime surged around the nation starting in summer 2020, it surged in rural areas, too. But cities get more media attention, and the sheer numbers are staggering: The yearly total of murders in Chicago dropped by more than 100 in 2022—to a horrifying 695. New Orleans has one of the highest murder rates in the nation.