Attributing the LA Fire Crisis to the Detrimental Impact of Woke Ideology on Our Cities

The narrative woven throughout the Hebrew Bible often revolves around the theme of divine retribution against the wrongdoers.

Welcome to fire-ravaged Los Angeles, which The Post aptly dubbed HELL.A.

I do not imply that the people of Los Angeles deserve the tragedy that has struck them; that would be misguided and downright heartless.

However, as we grapple with one of the most significant catastrophes to hit an American city, we must be brutally honest about the situation, especially if we aim to prevent such disasters in the future.

A candid evaluation reveals a harsh truth: The destruction of Los Angeles is largely attributed to the leaders in power blindly following a detrimental ideology.

This ideology, often referred to as the woke religion, prioritizes evaluating individuals based on skin color rather than character, propelling Karen Bass to the mayor’s office.

As warnings began to surface days prior to the inferno, indicating LA was facing “the Big One,” Bass decided to travel to Ghana for an inconsequential act of “diplomacy,” as if attending foreign inaugurations is a normal duty for an American mayor.

Upon her return, Bass encountered a British television journalist, who posed several pointed questions, and she then held a press conference where she awkwardly suggested anyone needing help should visit “URL,” a gaffe that would have been humorous if it weren’t so tragic.

The woke ideology led Bass to trim $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget, reallocating those funds to support the city’s expanding — and increasingly unstable — homeless population. Her initial request to slash $23 million was even more alarming, clearly demonstrating her priorities favoring virtue-signaling over genuine public safety.

Fueled by the woke religion, the mayor, an advocate for the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion, appointed a series of inept individuals to the critical water board. She also conjured up grand plans involving recycled water but merely shrugged off missed deadlines and spiraling costs, leaving the city without essential resources.

This same ideology inspired California Governor Gavin Newsom to address the United Nations regarding climate change and propose a ban on new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, all while he significantly reduced California’s wildfire prevention budget by $150 million.

He then exaggerated the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns by an astonishing 690%.

In another bewildering submission to the extreme environmentalist agenda of the woke ideology, Newsom advocated for the conservation of the three-inch delta smelt fish, depriving Los Angeles of any additional water resources that could have been crucial when reservoirs ran dry last Wednesday.

In the upcoming weeks and months, we will surely hear a slew of sanctimonious explanations from progressive politicians, attributing this catastrophic situation to misfortunes rather than their own destructive policies.

However, voters, as demonstrated in the latest presidential election, are no longer swayed by such rhetoric.

They recognize that the Democratic Party has strayed from genuinely considering constituents, policies, or tangible outcomes. All that remains are mere articles of faith.

Democrats persist in advocating for “criminal justice reform” even as crime rates soar uncontrollably in every major city under their jurisdiction.

They promote diversity and inclusion while simultaneously excluding certain groups—most notably Jews—from their supposed coalition.

They speak endlessly about social justice while introducing new forms of discrimination.

They decry “the patriarchy” while dismantling the very institutions that Americans have come to trust and respect.

They operate on the premise that they are not public servants—representatives of the often imperfect population—but rather high priests of a cultish ideology that takes precedence over public welfare.

The fires in LA should serve as a wake-up call, yet they are not the sole instance illustrating how this ideology causes suffering for everyday Americans.

These same misguided beliefs have transformed Chicago into the murder capital of the United States.

They have turned New York’s once-secure subway system into an apocalyptic nightmare.

They’ve made Philadelphia the city with the highest drug overdose death rate in America.

Misery can be traced back to the same flawed convictions, financed by identical sources, and supported by the same political groups.

The situation in LA should be enough evidence for us to declare: enough is enough.

It is imperative that we categorically reject—not just the individuals perpetuating this flawed ideology—but the ideology itself.

We must take decisive action against DEI, CRT, and the myriad of acronyms used to divert us from traditional American values such as common sense and fairness, imposing instead a radical set of beliefs aimed at conjuring a utopia through any means necessary.

We can’t afford another moment of this madness, especially with our streets literally ablaze.

Liel Leibovitz serves as the editor at large for Tablet and is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.