Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Mayor Eric Johnson: America’s Cities Need Republicans, and I’m Becoming One

While Dallas has thrived, elsewhere Democratic policies have exacerbated crime and homelessness.

Dallas

I have been mayor of Dallas for more than four years. During that time, my priority has been to make the city safer, stronger and more vibrant. That meant saying no to those who wanted to defund the police. It meant fighting for lower taxes and a friendlier business climate. And it meant investing in family friendly infrastructure such as better parks and trails.

That approach is working. Alone among America’s 10 most populous cities, Dallas has brought violent crime down in every major category, including murder, year-over-year for the past two years. In a recent Gallup poll asking Americans to rate the safety of major cities, Dallas came out on top. We have also reduced our property tax rate every year since I took office, signaling to investors that Dallas intends to remain the nation’s most pro-business city. This philosophy has helped attract growing small businesses and several Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs, the construction-engineering firm Aecom and the global commercial real-estate outfit CBRE.

After these wins for the people of Dallas—and after securing 98.7% of the vote in my re-election campaign this year—I have no intention of changing my approach to my job. But today I am changing my party affiliation. Next spring, I will be voting in the Republican primary. When my career in elected office ends in 2027 on the inauguration of my successor as mayor, I will leave office as a Republican.

I realize this will come as a surprise to many. During the decade I spent serving my hometown in the Texas House of Representatives, I was a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature. I prided myself on finding common-sense solutions and worked closely with my conservative colleagues to improve policing, public education and water infrastructure. I was never a favorite of the Democratic caucus, and the feeling was mutual. By the time I was elected mayor—a nonpartisan office—in 2019, I was relieved to be free from hyperpartisanship and ready to focus on solving problems.

But I don’t believe I can stay on the sidelines any longer. I have always tried to be honest and say what I think is right for my city. The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism. Our cities desperately need the genuine commitment to these principles (as opposed to the inconsistent, poll-driven commitment of many Democrats) that has long been a defining characteristic of the GOP.

In other words, American cities need Republicans—and Republicans need American cities. When my political hero Theodore Roosevelt was born, only 20% of Americans lived in urban areas. By the time he was elected president, that share had doubled to 40%. Today, it stands at 80%. As America’s cities go, so goes America.

Unfortunately, many of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint. Most of these local leaders are proud Democrats who view cities as laboratories for liberalism rather than as havens for opportunity and free enterprise.

Too often, local tax dollars are spent on policies that exacerbate homelessness, coddle criminals and make it harder for ordinary people to make a living. And too many local Democrats insist on virtue signaling—proposing half-baked government programs that aim to solve every single societal ill—and on finding new ways to thumb their noses at Republicans at the state or federal level. Enough. This makes for good headlines, but not for safer, stronger, more vibrant cities.

In the coming years, I will continue to pursue my three-pronged goal for Dallas: to become the safest major city in America with the best park system in Texas and the lowest taxes in our fast-growing North Texas region.

And I intend to keep the promise I made to Dallas voters in 2019 and refrain from endorsing candidates seeking partisan political office while I am mayor. This is about promoting policies and principles, not personalities and politicians.

Still, with my change in party affiliation, I recognize that the number of Republican mayors leading the nation’s 10 largest cities has increased from zero to one. This is hardly a red wave. But it is clear that the nation and its cities have reached a time for choosing. And the overwhelming majority of Americans who call our cities home deserve to have real choices—not “progressive” echo chambers—at city hall.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-cities-need-republicans-and-im-becoming-one-dallas-texas-mayor-965dbaa4?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Blurry....I posted about his jump to the Republican Party, and you've posted this good thread. No responses to a major political move and statement. All I see in the Attic is a bunch of tongue wagging but they can't handle this. For ANYBODY interested in discussing politics on a serious level, this move has to be discussed.

My first thought. Is Eric Adams next? If that's the next logical thought, it REALLY deserves discussion. The real question that the Dallas mayor's move brings up is, "is the Republican Party what the big cities REALLY need?"

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

The country is a bit upside down, I don't understand why Whitmer won reelection and I certainly don't understand that slob Pritzkerin Illinois winning, I hope folks up there are happy as people get what they vote for.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

It's easy. They got more votes. I thought you would know this. What I don't understand is someone joining the party of Trump, and braging about it.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Easy Peasy, he opened his eyes and took a look around.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Republican values, ultimately, are what would save this country. Trump knew it, which is why he ran as a Republican. He'd never really declared himself before he ran. Some of Trump's recent declarations (in reaction to De Santis, make me wonder if he might have just as easily declared himself as a Democrat.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

He said long before he ran that if he ever ran he would run as a Republican because it would be much easier to win that way. I believe he was a Democrat at the time. He still has most Republicans in a spell. I don't know how you don't see this. Blurry, when I asked him about traditional Republican values blasted traditional Republican values. You joined in on that conversation pretty much taking an opposite posistion to Blurry's, so I know you know this. I'm not knocking your values but they are no longer the values of the Republican party. The Democratic party apparently have a corrupt senstor and they want nothing to do with him. If he won't resign, they will likely expel him. If he were a Republican the Republicans would circle around him like they have Trump and other Republicans. This is not the same Republican party you were part of only a few years ago. Their values are no longer yours. You claim to detest Trump, but the Republican party embraces him. You need to let this Republican party go down the drain and start a new party that shares your values. I probably shouldn't have said need, but you really should explore it.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Why are you spewing and repeating the same debunked lie that Trump said that he would run as a Republican because it would be much easier to win that way? Politifact debunked that lie years ago.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Say again!! I didn't quite get that.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

He's probably reading from Joe Biden's teleprompter.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Trump is a populist and that is why he has gained so much support in the Republican Party, many of his supporters do not support his crassness, they wish his behavior were different but what they see in him are his policies that they felt supported this country, her people and communities. When you talk about traditional Republican values I am unsure about what you are talking about, small government, strong defense, state's rights, originalists on the court? Are those the values you are talking about? I don't see that Trump failed there other than he did not do enough to curb the reach size and influence of the federal government.

Many liberals seem to think that "America First" is some sort of a hateful policy platform but it is not, to many Republican voters it is exactly what the government should be doing, weighing policy in terms of how policy benefits the American people and not some globalist agenda. You can deny it if you so chose but liberal policies are destroying our cities and having disastrous effects on our country, be it the current situation with open borders or the policies that many of our cities have introduced on criminal justice, allowing criminals to immediately return to the streets. Liberals have focused on the freedom of violent criminals while neglecting to account for the suffering of their victims. Mayors and governors are publicly stating that the flow of immigrants into their cities is destroying their cities, in New York mayor Adams is cutting much needed funding from public safety to try and meet the demands of caring for the newly arrived immigrants into his city. Biden just yesterday in his speech bragged about how his border policy is helping American businesses meet their labor demands, he damn well knows that the current flood at the border has nothing to do with legitimate asylum claims but rather economic migration which does not qualify for entry into this country. It is amazing to me how he can just override the rule of this country's laws and act as if he has the right to do so while his policies are overwhelming the social services of communities throughout this country.

How soon you folks forget the horrors of 9/11, if you don't think that the situation on the border is not opening this country up to another terrorist attack it is only because you are not thinking.

One last note on criminal justice reform, liberal media shies away from covering run away crime but we see it all over the country and things are getting worse as criminals no longer fear the justice system. Liberals seem to focus on the racial disparities in incarceration and it is true that does exist, but what is also true is that minorities are grossly over represented in murder statistics suggesting that they participate in more crime and violent crime than the general population. You don't fix this by just letting the criminals back on to the streets, you fix this by putting the criminals into prison and disrupting their criminal enterprises while fixing their communities. The youth in this country in many communities is becoming out of control, you have major retailers packing up and leaving cities that in the past have been some of their most profitable locations but now because of lax enforcement and the organized theft that has taken over these locations can no longer support their stores. You have car jackings and violent crime going through the roof and you may not see the connection but just one example are the two teens in Colorado who last month stole 4 cars in a single day and used those cars to run over 2 different cyclists killing a retired police chief. The teen in the video laughingly said that he would be back on the streets within a month. That is where these policies lead, unfortunately for him that will not be the case but it is the new mindset of our violent youth.

Liberals just don't get it and they are easily lead by cries of racism, social justice, equity, and criminal justice reform, but letting criminals run wild is certainly not an answer, improving the environment, education, and opportunities in disadvantaged communities is a positive step, but to do so lawlessness must be addressed and not condoned, feeding teachers unions and failing public schools is also not an answer. In your own state public education is sinking like a rock, California used to have public education among the top in the nation, not so much anymore but you continue to back the failing organizations that have allowed for the decline and you embrace every avenue of insanity that is introduced into the educational system. The America first crowd rejects this plan of action.

I am so tired of hearing about traditional Republican values, Republican voters have pretty much always had the same values, our politicians maybe did not once they arrived in DC but the voters did and have never been happy with the Republican establishment. That is why the three republican candidates in the current primary who you would consider batshit crazy (Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy) because of their "America First" agendas are garnering close to 80% of support in the Republican primaries.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

You could always just read it again.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I could read it twenty times and still not understand what you were trying to say. I could guess as to the reason but it would be considered rude. Try re-writing first thing in the morning.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

The only reason that the democrats would expel Menendez is because the democrat governor of New Jersey will replace him with another democrat Senator, if New Jersey had a republican governor they would circle the wagons and defend him as they do Biden.

wilpharm Loc: Oklahoma

its his typical chin-dribble jibber jabber...no one else got it either..its like trying to read DennyT bullshit