DC’s blizzard flop is another lesson on government power 

These were landslide margins by any standard or definition. Harris lost the national popular vote and was swept across the swing states by President Donald Trump, but she still racked up towering margins in the nation’s bluest areas.

But none of the aforementioned jurisdictions could “out-blue” the District of Columbia. More than 92% of its voters went for Harris. No major city in the United States is more Democratic than Washington. So, what have these lockstep progressive voters gotten in return for their lopsided partisanship?

Washington’s violent crime rates have been atrocious for many years, with an acute wave of crime crashing across the district during and after the pandemic. Carjackings alone were described as an epidemic rather recently, with even a sitting Democratic congressman falling victim. As criminals rampaged, frequently coddled by the system, innocent people were murdered, businesses shut down, and livelihoods evaporated. On the other hand, residents were treated to “social justice” slogans painted on asphalt and a steady stream of resistance words and signaling. What about governing results? Crime has plummeted in recent months, but that’s largely attributable to federal intervention that most local elected officials hysterically opposed.

Their virulent protestations were ignored, and adult supervision was imposed. Last month, federal officials touted a 60% drop in homicides, with carjackings collapsing by 68% and overall crime dropping 32% when comparing late 2024 to late 2025. The new year is off to a similarly auspicious start, with a headline in this Sunday’s Washington Post saying, “DC went three weeks without a homicide, as violent crime drops.” Washingtonians voted against Trump by dictatorship-level margins, but his policy to crack down on crime has undeniably made the city safer and more livable. An increased, visible presence of officers and National Guard troops, along with stepped-up enforcement, has driven crime rates dramatically southward. Can voters in the U.S.’s bluest city acknowledge and process these realities?  

It’s unclear whether this enforcement footprint is practical or sustainable indefinitely, but the results have spoken for themselves. For what it’s worth, the current posture is “likely” to be “extended until the end of the year,” an administration official told Fox News in mid-January. Maintaining law and order, in the interest of public safety, a yearslong failure in Washington, is just about as central a function of government as exists.

So is snow removal. The district was hit with a modest-sized blizzard more than a week ago, with significant but hardly overwhelming snowfall, compounded by a layer of ice and extended subfreezing temperatures. The local government’s response has been disastrous. Many streets are unplowed or have barely been touched for days. Countless sidewalks remain impassable.

Heavy snow may not be as common in the “DMV” metro area as it once was, but it’s hardly an unexpected or freak occurrence either. Washington is not some city in the deep South that finds itself effectively paralyzed by a dose of flurries because snow is such an alien phenomenon. The latest storm was also forecast for several days — it did not sneak up on anyone. Yet, a leftist local government run entirely by the “Party of More Government,” in the very seat of government, face-planted in its hour of responsibility. Core governmental functions simply did not occur, or, at best, were haphazard and ineffective. When some of the necessary work finally started, very belatedly, the decision was made to block lanes of a major thoroughfare in the middle of rush hour, incensing already-stressed motorists. Roughly one full week after the modest blizzard, much of Washington is still a mess.

Mayor Muriel Bowser posted messages on social media hailing citizen volunteer teams signing up to perform tasks that the government and its contractors had not.

“600+ DC residents signed up to be Snow Team Heroes — and yesterday, they cleared walkways at 100+ homes of seniors and residents with disabilities,” she gushed. “We all can play a role in getting DC clear. A special thank you to all who volunteered to go above and beyond for neighbors in need.”

Many of the replies to her X post reflected a theme of, “That’s nice, but why exactly am I paying exorbitant taxes to live here?”

It’s not just a good question, it’s the question. A city cannot get more capital-D Democratic than Washington. It’s the most pro-government and pro-“Party of More Government” city in the country. It’s run by politicians who demand an ever-larger role for government and seek to confiscate inexorably higher sums of their constituents’ hard-earned money to fund their statist adventurism. All of this is proposed and implemented under the banner of “compassion” and similar feelgoodery.

But why should anyone agree to hand more power or surrender more of their money to a government that cannot perform baseline jobs that everyone agrees should be within its purview? The “warmth of collectivism,” as communist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani extolled the statist worldview in his inaugural address, is supposedly about an equitably shared burden that benefits everyone — one wonders how this aligns with the alleged warmth of collectivist policies. More “free” this, more subsidized that, and more tax “fairness” to fund it all.

All too often, though, when it really counts, these government supremacists cannot deliver acceptable governance outcomes. As fires consumed entire neighborhoods last year, hydrants ran dry in deep-blue California. The left-wing mayor of Los Angeles was not even in the country as the catastrophe unfolded. Endless billions of federal tax dollars are routinely stolen and embezzled by fraudsters, but the “Party of More Government” does not miss a beat in insisting on flushing even more cash down those abuse-addled tubes.

One might think that these sorts of gargantuan, public failures would induce at least a modicum of shame, but like Washington snowplows, shame seems to be in short supply. While her city’s streets remain in dysfunctional shambles, Bowser publicly caroused with other politicians over drinks. Fresh off widely panned photo ops at salt distribution locations, National Review reported that Bowser was spotted “drinking with fellow mayors at a hotel bar and snapping photos with fans for this year’s U.S. Conference of Mayors as the streets and sidewalks of her city remain covered in snow and ice.” Shades of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and the French Laundry. “Let them eat cake” — with extra icing, in this case.

The government supremacists devote their careers to attaining power that they claim they want to wield to improve others’ lives. They preach government intervention and taxation as pillars of that project, opposition to which is “cruelty.” Their appetite for authority, control, and other people’s money is rapacious and bottomless, as are their assurances of the best of intentions.

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But when core governmental competence is urgently needed, the project frequently falters and fails.  And in many cases, the supremacists don’t even appear to care. No one of sound mind would expect Washington voters to elect a Republican mayor anytime soon, no matter how fed up they might get. Hell would need to freeze over, not just the city’s streets.

But the gap between expansive government rhetoric and expansive government deliverables provides an object lesson about American politics more broadly. Voters should not hand over additional power, programs, initiatives, and money to people who crave them for their political ends and ambitions, only to find they cannot execute the fundamental functions of government when the need for prompt and competent services is most acute.