Posted on 11/26/2014 8:59:42 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
As we see rioters destroying downtown Ferguson and demonstrating in other cities, it occurs to me that the time is ripe for Republicans to offer their solutions to inner city problems. Black Americans have been beholden to Democrats since the 1960s, and has their lot improved? I do not have the statistics handy; I’ll let others work those up. But it is my impression that most inner city Americans are worse off in terms of lower incomes, higher unemployment, poorer education, greater dependence upon food stamps, etc. As I try to defend Republican policies on social media, my Democratic friends are skeptical that the “evil” Republicans can offer improvements. Thus it is the ideal time for vocal and coherent policies to be offered and debated by Republicans.
Even liberals like Fox’s Bob Beckel agree that the Democrats have been primarily responsible for the disaster of our inner cities, with their welfare/no workfare programs, the lack of responsibility in terms of fatherhood, the astronomical abortion rates, etc. Young men seem to have few alternatives to gangs and criminal pursuits. Let’s offer ideas to turn this around. We need to increase opportunities and responsibility. Welfare should require work, even volunteer hours, for those physically capable. We need to reduce benefits, ease people off welfare and move them into jobs. We need to encourage fathers to stay with the mothers they bed and the children that result. Young black fathers need to feel the joy of the birth of their offspring, not the frustration of being cut off from these families so the governmental benefits continue.
In the past, I remember Republicans offering policies to improve education, school choice and competition. We need to eliminate the farce that is Common Core. We need to return the power and choices of education to local schools and local families. We need to rework assessment so that there is less dependence upon test scores and more upon critical thinking. We need to brainstorm across the aisle to improve the challenge and excitement of education.
We need to make the inner cities prosperous again. We need to reinstate enterprise zones and to reduce bureaucracy and paperwork for new businesses. We need to encourage single mothers and others to begin their own businesses. We need to study the impediments and frustrations of new businesses and propose solutions that work.
We need to make higher education more affordable, with loans offered at very low interest and with business and entrepreneurship courses. We need to spark interest in success and to make it possible. We need to show how hard work can be a reward in and of itself. Almost a third of the millennial generation show no interest in working for a living. We need to turn this around.
These are just a few ideas; I know that our rising Republican stars can come up with many more ideas. But now is the time to act, while the issues are fresh and Republicans are on the rise. Show the country that we can make a difference. And as Republicans make such suggestions and then their policies, we need also to listen to and respect Democratic ideas. When we disagree, we need to do so rationally, pointing up the deficits of programs like Common Core. We need to avoid the pitfalls of calling those we disagree with by names (which is, of course, a favorite Democratic ploy). We are above that. We need to encourage critical thinking just by how we debate the issues.
The time is ripe to appeal to those people who are frustrated with Democratic policies and who have never considered Republican alternatives. We need to show that the Republican approach to smaller government and more local control, with greater competition and individual responsibility, is the way to go.
And not only must attitudes change, the inner city population WANT the proposed changes. THEIR ideas, maybe.
One thing for sure, throwing money at a problem exacerbates the ailments.
Excellent copy for PSAs in all media...............
Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 by Charles Murray. The statistics are there. To quote the eminent statesman Al Gore, “Everything that should be down is up; everything that should be up is down.”The “Great Society” program worked about the way you would expect of a program which is tendentiously mislabeled. Thomas Paine warned us during the Revolution that
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.So when LBJ promised a “great society,” everyone should have understood that the promise was actually a pledge of a great government - something the Framers of the Constitution were too wise to attempt. It was inevitable that the result would be, not a greater society but both a government and a society which was the worse for the imprudent attempt.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil . . .
“Here’s one: Grow up.”
Exactly. Beat me to it.
solution - inner migration of U.S. citizens from the Liberals’ government plantation society strongholds to where ever in the country jobs are more plentiful
There’s nothing anyone can do for these folks until they take themselves by the scruff and decide to get educated and stop condoning thuggery.
High walls.
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