It’s an opportune time for Municipal Conservatism [Buck Throckmorton]

Democrats have controlled most US cities for so long that it’s hard to believe that major cities have ever had Republican mayors. The last Republican mayor in Seattle was in 1969; Minneapolis – 1973; Baltimore – 1967; Portland – 1980; San Francisco – 1964; Chicago – 1931.

Although Democrat mayors in the 20th century may have been liberal, they generally wanted their cities to be successful, prosperous, and orderly. But now we suddenly find that Democrat mayors and councils in many major cities are committed to deconstructing western civilization, and to prove their commitment they are aggressively trying to burn down their own cities and destroy all social order. It’s unthinkable, but it’s happening.

It used to be that Democrat mayors and city councils were all about jobs programs, generous salaries and benefits for municipal employees, and a smorgasbord of services for residents. In exchange, the taxes and corruption of the power structure was tolerated, but citizens always felt they could rely on a certain level of policing and civil order. Republicans, by contrast, offered “limited government” and lower taxes, and they were routed at the polls for decades.

With our major cities now boarded up and in ruins, this is an ideal time for Republicans to assert a “municipal conservatism” that our dying cities are desperately in need of. But the worn-out, libertarian, anti-government Republican platform of old will not fix the anarchy that has overtaken our cities. Heck, the left’s demand to abolish the police could itself be defined as “anti government”.

What Republicans need to offer is city services done right: Policing; Patriotism; Cleanliness; Safety; Usable parks; Schools that teach the “Three Rs”; Anti-vagrancy; Pro-small business; Pro-church; Pro-America. The opportunity is huge because Democrats now oppose all of those building blocks of civilization.

Sure, let’s go ahead and promise to clean up the graft, to eliminate full-retirement for 50-year-olds, to reduce red tape, to replace pensions with 401ks, etc. But above all else, let’s promise and deliver a return to civil order in our cities. There is a huge demand for it.

posted by Open Blogger at 02:14 PM

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