THE CRACKED MIRROR THAT IS CONNECTICUT

Making Connecticut Whole Again

Connecticut doesn’t make sense.  The pieces do not fit together properly.  Whether is the measures of the population trends, the economy or other measures one can say that Connecticut is in a state of decline while others claim it is growing. One might also say it is out of step with the rest of the nation even as it is affected by the rest of the nation.  The final image of all these pieces combined forms a cracked mirror.  The image is supposed to show you some one thing, but it looks disjointed.

If you start asking serious questions about the most basic features of Connecticut, you will find yourself going down a rabbit hole.  For every data point, there is another one to contradict it.  Worse, even if there is some correspondence, there is still inconsistency.

Everywhere you look there is another piece of information that ruins making a definitive statement about Connecticut.  The case can be made that Connecticut has been in economic stagnation for at least the last 10 years.

Connecticut is one of six states which has gone economically in the opposite direction when compared with the rest of the nation.   Control by the worst liberal elements for the last 40 years has produced a state falling ever farther behind the rest of the nation.  This op-ed looks at three things:  1)  This ruling class has taken advantage of voter dissatisfaction, 2) “Good timing” for a ruinous bill affecting local property control for all the towns in the state, and 3) The continued efforts to obscure how poorly the state is doing in so many measures of performance.

The Election

The election of Nov. 4^th, 2025 was a nightmare for the Connecticut Republican party. No one expected the municipal elections to switch from majority Republican control to majority Democrat control so dramatically.  Before the election, Republicans had 100 of the 169 towns in the state.  After the elections, the Democrats reportedly now have 101 of the towns.

One analyst suggested the change was primarily due to two groups of voters:  White liberal women over the age of 40 and Hispanic women upset by the actions of ICE.  Trump Derangement Syndrome is alive and out of control.  Will they wake up and realize they destroyed local control on the altar of the hatred for President Trump?

Loss of Local Control

Immediately after the election, the state legislature, in special session, passed HB 8002.  This had been previously vetoed by the governor.  But this was all performative art.  The liberal legislature passed this bill.  It is the product of a long running battle over the last three years.  The number of lies and misrepresentations by the liberal side are remarkable.  It is for affordable housing, it is for the homeless, it is for doing the right thing.  The bill is none of those things.  It is only a “sugar daddy” bill for the real estate development industry in Connecticut.

 Deceptive passing of the “housing” bill has created even more centralized planning in Connecticut.  Centralized planning is a communist/socialist concept that fails miserably.  Yet, this is what real estate developers want so they can maximize profit and eliminate all those pesky protesters who reject their building plans.  But will this help the state grow economically in the coming years? Not if you are hiding the economy.

Hiding The Economy

 The search for the real Connecticut continues to this day.  Is the population growing or shrinking?  Is the economy growing or shrinking?  What is really happening to employment?  The answers to these basic questions are important because they tell us the true condition of the state.  Many people have been leaving for other states, while some others have come in.  There is also a claim that the immigration abuses of the Biden years have compensated for the lost of population in the state.

There are so many different “interpretations” of the state of the Connecticut economy.  The state Department of Labor gives one set of figures, the Federal Reserve has another, while other analysts have their own take.  Who to trust?

As a very liberal state, it has continued to pursue a social justice agenda.  However, some may wonder if the cultural forces in this state have become out of control. Are we supposed to believe that liberalizing cannabis use will lead to a more productive work force?  How does allowing growing mediocrity in education prepare the workforce for the future?  Is the misbegotten belief in making Connecticut a destination state for abortion going to produce a stronger economy?  Abortion tourism?  Seriously?

Conclusion

If you are a liberal, you continue to live in a world of delusion.  The public education you control is in decline.  The media no longer has an investigative function. It gets to tell the truth only when it is allowed to.  Local control has been destroyed, all while the population stagnates or shrinks, and the economy continues to tread water.  It is a theme that gets repeated over and over again. However, those that control Connecticut are happy to keep it this way.

If you are a conservative, you see the situation plainly.  But it is frustrating.  You remain in the minority, others around are powerless to effect much change.  Meantime, others keep telling you to leave the state and let it suffer the consequences of its decline.

And yes a cracked mirror would be considered bad luck.  That is exactly the message.  Connecticut is a state besieged by bad luck that comes with bad leadership.  So long as the same tired old power dynamics remain, that is what voters will get.  When self-interest is self-destructive, you are confronted with terrible choices.

A cracked mirror is worse than a hall of mirrors.  The cracks mean the pieces are disjointed and disconnected even if they are next to each other.  So long as that cracked image is the vision for Connecticut, we will continue to decline while the rest of the nation moves forward.