While the specifics would, at first glance, seem to only be applicable to residents of the Big Apple, (or at least New York State in general) Michael Goodwin has an op-ed at the NY Post this week which I would still recommend to readers in the rest of the country. Titled, Obama, Cuomo and de Blasio: The 3 stooges of the apocalypse, Goodwin examines similar traits shared by the executive branch leaders of the nation, the state and one of our largest cities, as well as how their matching styles of leadership are leading to mirrored problems at each level of government.

In this section, he shares a rather dismal vision of the coming world disorder.

A new world order may be coming, or it may just be a long period of bloody disorder. The only clarity is an unshakable conviction that something fundamental is changing for the worse. The biggest change is that America, the modern world’s anchor of stability and security, is being roiled by a never-ending loop of turmoil and division. Mankind’s last resort feels unsettled and unreliable, adding to the sense of impending danger.

The lion’s share of the blame ­belongs to our awful governments, from New York City to ­Albany to Washington.

I can think of no other period when we simultaneously had such terrible leaders and ineffective lawmakers at all three levels. They seem to feed on each other’s worst instincts, competing to lay claim to the most sweeping changes, no matter the method or impact.

The leader of the pack, of course, is in the Oval Office.

Obama’s foreign policy is ­beyond broken — it is a major contributor to the unfolding global catastrophe. Thanks to his failed leadership, Iran, the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism, will get a nuclear bomb, an event that will throw open the gates to hell.

The Syrian civil war, which he pledged to stop, has killed 230,000 people and displaced 7.6 million. It helped to birth the Islamic State, the most ruthless and successful terrorist army the world has ever known. That’s Obama’s legacy.

The policy failures of Washington are being repeated in the state capital of Albany. While promising transparency and reform, the brother of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has overseen an era of police investigations into government corruption which are on a scale which is shocking even to New Yorkers.

New Yorkers, meanwhile, are governed by Frick & Frack or, in Andrew Cuomo’s case, NoFrack.

The governor, like the president, took office promising to change the culture of the capital. But either he was telling a whopper, or lost his way. In his fifth year, Albany remains the most corrupt state capital in America, and Cuomo himself is now regarded by a majority of New Yorkers as being part of the problem instead of the solution.

As the author notes, New Yorkers have stopped wondering if Cuomo will one day be president and are instead wondering when he will be indicted.

And at the lowest level there is Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City. The hypocrisy of this self-defined man of the people is rather staggering. His social justice agenda has led to unrest across the boroughs, with the murder rate on the rise and police backing off because they don’t feel that City Hall has their backs.

As I said, it’s a great read, but this isn’t just a story of New York. Look at the current conditions of most of the big cities in some our most densely populated states across the nation. When it comes to corruption and a breakdown of the social compact, let’s substitute Baltimore, Maryland, where until just this year they had Governor Martin O’Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, with a string of Democrats leading the way before them. Is there that much of a difference between the recent history of Charm City and the conditions in New York described above? How about Los Angeles, with Governor Jerry Brown and Mayor Eric Garcetti? Noticing a pattern here? Even in Chicago and the state of Illinois, they finally swore in another Republican as governor this year, but that was only after Pat Quinn and Rod Blagojevich had a crack at it. And the Mayor is literally a member of Barack Obama’s campaign team.

True, each location is unique, with their own local cultures and traditions. But they also sit at the bottom of that three tier pyramid of power where “progressive” policies have ruled the roost for quite a while. And those cities have been run into the ground. Small wonder if a Gotham denizen like Mike Goodwin is feeling a bit down in the dumps when contemplating the future. As for me, I have no workable suggestion to offer. Clearly the people living in these metropolitan areas would rather stick with entrenched failed policies than experiment with any conservative solutions. They may simply have to completely crash and burn before things can turn around.