Each week Liberty Nation straps on its Personal Protective Equipment and dives into the TwitterZone to bring you the biggest news, the most outlandish arguments, and the real Zeitgeist of what is taking place in the internet's wildest frontier.
California's woke left has chosen now to reveal its ultimate political goals for the future under the Joe Biden administration. In the wake of the homeless crisis plaguing the state, progressives have set themselves on a new warpath. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the state's existing homeless population significantly -- still, unemployment pay, stimulus checks, and rent and eviction freezes have offered some relief. But left-wing activists have taken to Twitter to make #SeizeTheHotels trend.
As the phrase implies, progressives are pushing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to "commandeer” private hotels to house the city's homeless population. They mention Biden's offer to reimburse local and state governments for the cost of purchasing hotel rooms for homeless people to live in during the pandemic. But let’s read between the lines here: Activists advocating for Los Angeles to seize hotels are angling not for just temporary housing but slippery-sloping it to a long-term solution.
The city of Los Angeles, indeed California as a whole, has utterly failed to resolve the homeless problem. Throwing more money at the dire situation has been ineffectual, and the Golden State’s leftists are fed up with the Democratic political ruling class. The call to "seize the hotels" is a pure authoritarian power grab being made in the guise of compassionate housing for the homeless. Rather than abiding by city agreements already made with hotels to provide rooms for some homeless people, progressives have moved on to seizing private enterprise to advance their social justice agenda.
The trending hashtag's proponents left out the specifics of Project Roomkey, which grants power to the city to house the homeless as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The broader scope of the project is deeply troubling to say the least. The fact that influential figures in Los Angeles can cheer on the erosion of private enterprise through government action should bring chills to anyone with an elementary knowledge of Mao Zedong's China and Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Why are citizens not paying much attention to social movements advocating for increased government control of the private sector? Too many elements of the far left’s wishlist are coming true right before our eyes, with little resistance from any political quarter. Let’s not be fooled: With the cultural shifting of the goalposts away from equality toward equity, instituting complete government control of society has moved one step closer.
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