Portland’s Ted Wheeler has announced he no longer wishes to be Mayor of Antifastan. Wednesday, the Portland Mayor told a distracted public, who no longer feels safe in his downtown and can’t afford gas and groceries, that he would not seek re-election. They knew what the rest of us knew: Wheeler left Portland’s City Hall a long time ago.
Wheeler’s grasp of common sense became untethered soon after his election in 2016. He handed over con of the “Portanic” to his left flank, and never looked back to see the flotsam and jetsam left in their wake.
Now that he’s helped destroy his city, he’s leaving.
I have great confidence in the steps we are taking to address the problems facing Portland today. We will continue building on that progress to ensure Portland’s best years are ahead of us. pic.twitter.com/V8yVrigXDi
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) September 13, 2023
As he settled into office, the suggestible homegrown product, who after high school tottled off to Stanford and Columbia, went supine, showed his belly, and telegraphed to the crazies that he was a mark.
Wheeler was overcome by the left’s 2016 election virus, Trump Derangement Syndrome. He handed over his scepter to Antifa and BLM, sat back, and watched with satisfaction as they destroyed the civil society in Portland.
Wheeler’s term of office seldom saw a peaceful day. Before, during, and after the 2016 election, the leftist catastrophists of Antifa and BLM began a reign of terror over parts of the city that saw every Tom, Dick, and Crazy come to the city to riot in 2020 and 2021 after the George Floyd died in Minneapolis. Wheeler’s city came under siege by fire bombers, fire setters, terrorists, and a division of violent femme transvestites, performance artists, and hardened felons who came to destroy.
And then Wheeler joined them. Wheeler told the crowd, “I want to thank the tens of thousands of Portlanders who came out to demonstrate in support of racial justice” and dismissed federal officers protecting the federal courthouse as conducting nothing short of urban warfare.
Wheeler thought he could use mutual hatred for Trump as a bridge to the far left. He told a mob of protesters that federal officers protecting a federal building was an “unconstitutional occupation.”
He would regret his words. He took a New York Times reporter with him as he walked to the federal building which protesters and rioters had firebombed, pelting police and the building with projectiles. Rioters launched fireworks or flash bangs at the building, and officers and federal officers responded by firing back a chemical gas to disperse the crowd. Wheeler was in the crowd.
Portland police made no arrests, despite the police commissioner, Wheeler, being roughed up by protesters in the crowd.
<Wheeler goes to a riot – security has to save him.
<90 something days of rioting
<Still thinks this is a good idea… https://t.co/RuWWDSBfeC— Andy (@Inkomancer) August 29, 2020
Any federal officers in the city, as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers could tell you, were harassed, followed, doxxed, and attacked. Wheeler threw in with the people who tore down, not built up the city. They still hated him.
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One Oregonian messaged me to say, “It doesn’t matter who they pick [next]. Everyone who has been mayor over the last 20 years has come from the exact same ideology. We would be in the exact same spot had other people won each of the last 5 races.” He went on, “If Portlanders had had any self-respect they would have tarred & feathered that jackass, strapped him to a heavy log, and dumped him in the river a long time ago.”
For a while there, the former state treasurer and Multnomah County Chair gave normal Oregonians hope he’d turn the city back from its dysfunctional and autocratic ways. But, coming in at the same time as Donald Trump, Wheeler, overwhelmed with Trump Derangement Syndrome, forgot his job and turned into someone with the emotional IQ of a college freshman.
Wheeler will be Portland’s mayor through 2024 and leaves behind a desolate downtown, angry business owners, overtaxed citizens, and a reputation for ruining a lovely little city.
The city’s strong mayoral system is falling by the wayside in the next election, making the mayor’s job less interesting. Beginning soon, the council member slots will be increased, and the disastrous rank choice voting will be used to pack the room with the far left. An executive will be hired to look after the day-to-day operation of the city.
It’s not fair to blame Wheeler for the entire mess he leaves behind. He had plenty of help. Tranche after tranche of leftist plug-and-play politicos have left the city a directionless crisscross of multi-million dollar bike paths between homeless camps and drug-addicted sad sacks lying on the streets. He had plenty of help in creating this dystopian hellscape.
There’s more to say about this in the days to come, but know this: even in his controlled demolition of Portland, Wheeler was better than the Antifa lady he ran against the last time.
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