On Sunday morning, you can frequently see me on the local Spanish channel talking a little politics.  We recorded this week's show on Friday afternoon, about an hour after Mayor Eric Johnson of Dallas announced that he was switching to the GOP.  We were supposed to talk about the Paxton acquittal but ended up talking a lot about the Johnson switch.

As you know, Mayor Johnson of Dallas announced his decision in a Wall Street Journal column.  This is a bit of what he wrote:

Unfortunately, many of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint. Most of these local leaders are proud Democrats who view cities as laboratories for liberalism rather than as havens for opportunity and free enterprise.

Too often, local tax dollars are spent on policies that exacerbate homelessness, coddle criminals and make it harder for ordinary people to make a living. And too many local Democrats insist on virtue signaling — proposing half-baked government programs that aim to solve every single societal ill — and on finding new ways to thumb their noses at Republicans at the state or federal level. Enough. This makes for good headlines, but not for safer, stronger, more vibrant cities.

In the coming years, I will continue to pursue my three-pronged goal for Dallas: to become the safest major city in America with the best park system in Texas and the lowest taxes in our fast-growing North Texas region.

Eric of New York: Are you listening?  I don't expect Mayor Eric Adams to change parties, but he should read the column and pick up a few tips.

Of course, the local Democrat response was somewhere between shock and betrayal.  I can understand that, but these same Democrats should walk in Democrat-run cities and see for themselves what Mayor Johnson is talking about.  They can start in Washington, D.C., ride over to Baltimore, north to Philadelphia, and so on.  They will see the Democrat-created disasters that Mayor Johnson is writing about.

What's next for Mayor Johnson? He has a new ally named Governor Abbott who will do whatever he can to make this party switch as successful as possible.  Maybe we will have a governor or U.S. senator named Johnson in our future?  Or maybe a Cabinet post in an administration?

No matter what happens to Mr. Johnson, he is correct in his assessment of our urban crisis, and other Democrats will follow.  Our cities desperately need attention, and they are not getting it from the Biden team.

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Image: Eric Adams, mayor of New York.  Credit: Krystalb97 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).