'Failed experiment': Experts reveal why Soros-backed policies took beating in deep blue state
Progressive politicians across the state of California suffered losses on Tuesday
The progressive crime agenda, largely pushed by liberal megadonor George Soros, suffered a major defeat in deep blue California this week after voters soundly rejected progressive prosecutors and policies, which experts tell Fox News Digital represents a major sea change.
"I think that this is broader than just a message from people who care about crime," Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of the book "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities," told Fox News Digital.
"This is a massive mandate and cry for help from the general population that we want our state back. We want our counties back, and we want our cities back and that our failed social experiments have had enough time, and they're an absolute, abysmal failure."
California voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 36 on Tuesday, which rolled back key provisions of Proposition 47, which was advertised by Democrats in the state as progressive crime reforms that would make the state safer.
"For too long, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom, [Los Angeles District Attorney] George Gascón and Democrat leaders have been trying to tell voters not to believe what they were seeing when it comes to crime," Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Fox News Digital. "They wanted to gaslight the public into thinking that our eyes have been lying to us. Well, the people have spoken in an overwhelming fashion. The results in the LA DA race and the Prop 36 race make it clear that Californians are done with the Democrats' soft-on-crime experiments that put our communities' safety at risk."
When Proposition 47 passed in 2014, it downgraded most thefts from felonies to misdemeanors if the amount stolen was under $950, "unless the defendant had prior convictions of murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes."
"You see all of these Walgreens, the first In N Out Burger to close, all these CVS in downtown San Francisco and L.A. closing, these mom-and-pop shops closing because you're literally telling people you can steal up to $950, and nothing's going to happen to you," Stimson told Fox News Digital. "Nobody with an ounce of common sense, left or right, thinks that that is a good idea. That is not reimagining criminal justice. That is a cancer unleashed on society under the fig leaf of reform."
Progressives suffered another major loss in the city of Los Angeles, where District Attorney George Gascón, backed by Soros, was defeated by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman as crime was seen as a top issue of the election cycle.
In another loss for Soros-backed prosecutors in the Golden State, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price was recalled early Wednesday, less than two years after taking office, following backlash for her alleged soft-on-crime approach.
Oakland Democratic Mayor Sheng Thao, who faced heat from her constituents amid rising crime, was also ousted from office after her recall effort passed with 65% of the vote.
In San Francisco, where crime has been a major concern with voters, Democratic Mayor London Breed lost her re-election campaign.
"I don't think this has really cabined to people who cared about crime," Stimson said. "This is just we want our beautiful state back. We want our beautiful cities back. And your cancerous failed social experiment, your social pandemic that you've unleashed on us is gone. We're done. We're done with this. And that's what's happening."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/failed-experiment-experts-reveal-why-soros-backed-policies-took-beating-deep-blue-state