ON THE DEATH OF PORTLAND: There was a time when Portland, Oregon, was known as “The Rose City,” a civilized, pleasant and prosperous place to live in the American Northwest. In its heyday, Portland had an annual rose festival and it even had an annual Indy car race!

But no more. As the Issues & Insights gang points out today, the city has become Mecca for every bomb-throwing, liberty crushing, lunatic Left-wing group:

“This is part of a pattern of how the Left works: Destroy the rule of law, the backbone of our free republic. Intimidate ordinary citizens into silence. Then support and elevate rule by power of unelected street thugs in Antifa and BLM. The meek may inherit the earth, but they won’t get the big cities.

“None of what we’re seeing should be viewed as a surprise or some sort of accident. Far from it. The city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, and Portland’s far-left city council, have not only permitted the violence, but enabled and encouraged it – just as mayors in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have done.”

Now, people and businesses are fleeing Portland. At least for now, they still have some place to go to escape the Hell the Left has brought into their lives. But, as Ronald Reagan so often warned, what happens when there is nowhere left to escape to?