“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H.L. Mencken

In the third decade of the 21st century, Mencken’s quotation needs to be upgraded. It’s not just that the common people are getting what they wanted good and hard, it’s that the virtue-signaling affluent leftists are finally getting it too. Certainly, that’s the conclusion to be had from a story about rising shoplifting in Marin County, once a very safe community and also one of America’s most fanatically Democrat-voting counties.

To appreciate the news story I’m about to share with you, you need to know two things about Marin County. First, in 2014, Marin County voters enthusiastically supported Proposition 47, with 79.14% of the voters saying “yes,” as opposed to 20.86% saying “no.” But what is Prop. 47, you ask? Excellent question and the answer matters a great deal.

Even before 2015, when Michael Brown attacked a police officer and tried to seize the officer’s gun, getting himself killed in the process, an event that marked the beginning of the mainstream war on the police, California was already paving the way for an increase in crime and a diminishment of law enforcement. Prop. 47 was that salvo, for it reduced shoplifting from a felony to a misdemeanor if the stolen goods are valued at less than $951 dollars. In other words, after Prop. 47 passed, you’d get a ticket for stealing up to $950 in merchandise.

Image: Shoplifters. YouTube screen grab.

And again, Marin County voters were all-in for this virtue-signaling initiative. Nor was this an anomaly. Marin County, which is the eighth wealthiest county in America, is fanatically Democrat. In 2020, Joe Biden walked away with 82.53% of the votes.  

Given Marin County’s devotion to Democrat policies, I have to admit that the schadenfreude was strong in me when I read that it’s suffering terribly from shoplifting (as are all retailers in the hard-left San Francisco Bay Area):

Across the Bay Area, retailers say they are struggling with rampant theft as laws, regulations and other obstacles complicate enforcement, leaving business owners frustrated.

Experts credit several circumstances for today’s shoplifting problem: an uptick in organized retail theft, social media posts that facilitate organized ransacking, increased homelessness, widespread drug addiction and a societal move away from incarceration for less-serious crimes.

San Rafael police Sgt. Justin Graham said the current laws allow thieves to get comfortable with stealing — and even target the same stores repeatedly.

Proposition 47, passed in 2014, reduced most theft and drug offenses to misdemeanors. For theft to be charged as a felony, the value of the item must be at least $950. Additionally, most stores have policies that prevent employees from chasing theft suspects for their safety and to reduce liability.

A 2018 study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that Proposition 47 might have contributed to a 9% rise in theft, mostly from vehicles, and that it probably “reduced both arrests by law enforcement and convictions resulting from prosecutions by district attorneys.”

Of course, my schadenfreude doesn’t extend to the 20% or so of Marin County residents who didn’t vote for this madness, many of whom are my friends. I’m also sure there are merchants among that 20%, and I feel great compassion for them. But for everyone else, it’s a wonderful thing that they’re getting their democracy “good and hard.” After all, wasn’t it Barack Obama who pontificated in banal fashion that “elections have consequences”?

The one sad thing is that it’s doubtful that any of these Democrat voters will learn their lesson. For them, politics is a Manichean struggle between good and evil, with Democrats on the side of good and Republicans being evil personified. Even as their infrastructure crumbles, their streets are covered with feces, drugged-out zombies fill the sidewalks, stores go out of business, and cities burn, their ideological blinders will see them continue to cast their votes for the candidates with the “D” after their names. How else, after all, can they be assured of their promised ascension to a socialist utopia?