Democrats: Time to Put Up

At the end of yesterday's column by Peggy Noonan ("Trump and the Collapse of the Old Order") she advised Democrats how they can regain power:

Admit what your party’s gotten wrong the past 15 years. Don’t be defensive, be humble.

Most of all, make something work. You run nearly every great city in the nation. Make one work—clean it up, control crime, smash corruption, educate the kids.

You want everyone in the country to know who you are? Save a city.

Gavin Newsom hasn't fixed California
or any of its cities.

The vast majority of Americans are pragmatists, not ideologues. If methods work, people will want to bring them to their own cities and will vote for politicians who will do so.

In California Progressives have been in control for the entire 21st century, yet crime. homelessness, and taxes keep going up, while students' test scores keep going down. California politicians build multibillion-dollar trains to nowhere, cut greenhouse gas emissions by decommissioning working power plants, and enforce speech codes while cities burn and drug deaths escalate.

Peggy Noonan is correct; people recoil in horror at the prospect of spreading California governance to the rest of the country. California has the benefit of its weather and trillion-dollar employers (Apple, Google, Facebook, Nvidia), yet it still can't make a single major city a desirable place to live. It's time to stop spinning narratives, Democrats, show us what you can do.