London. Paris. Rome. Athens. New York. Los Angeles.
Everyone around the globe knows these cities. Why? Because these cities matter. They hold historical, and even present, significance because of their contributions to civilization.
Whether we like it or not, cities are the core of society. They’re at the heart of our civilization.
And yet, in America, our cities are a complete and total disaster. Go to one, and you’ll likely start believing it’s a place beyond repair. The American Right would likely agree with your newfound belief, which is problematic.
The Right in America essentially ignores our cities—well, they ignore them other than to completely trash them rhetorically. And the disregard is understandable. Politically, most cities in America have a negative chance of electing a member of the political Right as mayor. Hell could freeze over, Satan himself could emerge, and, as long as he’s got a “D” next to his name, become mayor of San Francisco before a conservative Republican is ever elected mayor of Sodom-by-the-Sea.
And a large part of why cities are so blue, particularly compared to the rest of the country, is because the typical Republican voter doesn’t live in a city. He may have previously, but at a certain point, things got so bad in the city that he, and people of his kind all over the country—the last urban Republican holdouts—fled the city for the suburbs, a small town, or a rural area. As a result, with only a small number of exceptions, the GOP doesn’t even try to win in cities.
The conventional wisdom on the Right for decades now has been, “If we ignore these cities, they’ll perpetually vote blue, which will lead to the cities becoming hellholes, and, through enough suffering, the people in these cities will finally wake up, self-correct, and vote for the GOP.” Everything but the last part has happened.
But, in spite of people in cities continuing to vote blue, even though it’s destroyed where they live, the Right can’t just ignore cities. They’re still too important. They still contribute the majority of our GDP, and they still contain the majority of the American population. And this is going to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future because industry both creates and needs cities. So, politically, Republicans have to work towards the best they can hope for in cities.
And the best the GOP can hope for can be achieved through a few means.
Firstly, the GOP has to place a much higher emphasis on statewide races (state rep, senator, gubernatorial, and state Supreme Court elections). This will enable the GOP to offset the politics of cities to a significant degree. It’s much easier to control cities and not let them turn into complete disasters—although it’s by no means a guarantee—when they’re in red states instead of blue states.
And the most feasible way to carry out control of the cities seems to be through funding. Now, when a city is in a blue state, the GOP at the federal level needs to step in and shut the federal funding valve to a large or complete degree in order to bring these cities into political submission. Unfortunately, we can’t just withhold federal funding from cities because they vote blue. The court system would certainly have something to say about that were the executive or legislative branch to attempt to do something of the sort (even though it would greatly benefit these cities and, as a result, the country at large.)
But, and this is great news for our side, cities in blue states are almost assuredly breaking federal law, likely through declaring themselves to be a sanctuary city. This likelihood (certainty) gives the GOP at the federal level a legitimate reason to threaten federal funding to these cities. Wisely, the Trump administration seems to be capitalizing on the opportunity and pressuring cities along funding lines.
Secondly, in addition to focusing on state elections and funding, the GOP can focus on something actually in cities. They can focus on district attorney elections. This may actually be more important than the state races and funding—it probably is; Soros has certainly wreaked havoc on our cities through his (often successful) funding of rabidly leftist DA candidates.
It’s a DA’s job to prosecute criminals for their crimes. There is going to be more crime in a city because there are more people. But if a DA won’t prosecute because of his/her rabid political ideology (theology), everyone in the city suffers because criminals go free.
This is a political issue in cities that Republicans can actually change. And Republicans must change this issue. You cannot allow mass crime in the cities of your country, even if it’s mostly not affecting your voters because they likely don’t live in the cities.
So, is gaining a significant controlling influence over cities an uphill battle for the American Right? Yes. But it’s a battle that must be fought.