Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
The ideals of freedom are under siege. In the deep blue of the great and decaying cities the battle seems to have been lost. It is no coincidence that it is in these same inner cities that the desperate consequences of the statist model plays out in tragedy.
One response is to retreat to the hills and build a bulwark against the collapse of civilization. This is the Benedict option.
An alternative is to take a leaf out of the President's book and go into the inner cities to transform them. (One can, of course, indulge a certain amount of skepticism about what really motivated the young Barack Obama.) This is the Urban (II) option: take the battle to the heart of the enemy's territory and liberate the oppressed.
Moving to the internal wastelands of the culture is not for the faint of heart. But, then, neither is serving in Afghanistan or volunteering for the fire service. Nation building at home, so to speak.
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May '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
I'm torn between what is easy and what is right.
Oct '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
That thought brought back mental images from The Omega Man film with C. Heston. Similar efforts in a manner of speaking.
May '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
I almost posted something along these lines last night, except my comparison was to strategy games.
One common strategy is the "turtle" strategy in which one focuses on defense to amass an overwhelming force for one decisive attack. This strategy is usually defeated by an aggressive strategy which disrupts defenses with small but constant attacks. In the words of General Patton, "Fixed fortifications are a testament to the stupidity of Man."
In any case, demographic strategies rely on the availability of decades to correct course. I'm less optimistic.
Jun '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
"Deus vult! Deus vult!" Genferei, your gonna get me all spun up!
LOL.
Jun '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Obviously just another attempt to force gentrification and further marginalize poor urban minority populations.
[Just getting you ready]
Jan '11
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
To re-take the cities, you have to break two entrenched powers: the Democrat Party and unions. I say the unions are already cracking, so let's start there.
Scott Walker showed how to do that in Wisconsin; John Kasich didn't have it so well in Ohio. I'm persuaded by what our own Scott Reuser said in a podcast before the November election; namely, that Walker ran on a platform of taking on the unions, but Kasich didn't. The path must be prepared.
Walker's success in Wisconsin, and Mitch Daniels' success in Indiana, Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, etc., are all on the state level. The difference is that city politics is not the same as state or national politics.
But if we can get one conservative to turn around a city ... the dominoes will fall.
Sep '11
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
You want to raise your family here? Me neither.
Mar '11
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
You strike to the core of it Mr. Soto. After all who in their right mind would choose to raise their children in San Francisco or Detroit if they had other options? In many ways modern cities are explicitly hostile to families, this is how so many became liberal enclaves to begin with as families fled to Suburbia.
A tough nut to crack.
May '11
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
K- 12 education. Partner with inner city churches and philanthropic organizations. Promote apolitical libertarian based ideas.
Jun '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
"E Plebnista" is Yang worship word. We destroy Kohns. What was ours will be ours again!
May '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Urban! Urban! Urban!
I will not vote in 2014 or 2016 for a candidate who has not held a rally in the neighborhoods where Al Sharpton made his bones fronting the Tawana Brawley story and talk about just how great a life all that Free Cheese has got them.
Politic is for big boys and big girls with big stones who are ready to rumble the way John L. Sullivan got his start ...
by standing up in the middle of a bar and announcing that he could whip any man in the room ...
and then doing it.
Mar '11
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Oooh...the Trek-fu is strong in this one. :)
Oct '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Various leftist groupuscules used to send members to work in factories to raise the class consciousness of the line workers, and eventually radicalise them to prepare for the General Strike, coming revolution etc. (*)
It must be a lot easier to convince the deprived of the inner city wastelands that the government class is their enemy, given that objective reality is on our side.
Yes, false consciousness can be tenacious, but most people, when given the time and energy to choose between freedom and hope on the one hand, and free cheese and misery on the other, will choose freedom.
Of course, it may take considerable time and energy - the culture wasn't poisoned in a day, and it'll take longer than a day to purify. But, hey: next year in the Kingdom of Jerusalem...
(*) OK, we know how well that turned out for them. But, arguably, they eventually got a two-term president out of it...
May '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
That reminds me of a joke.
A US Navy Destroyer stops four Mexicans in a rowboat moving toward California. The captain says on the loud-hailer, "Ahoy, small craft! Where are you headed?"
One of the Mexicans puts down his oar, stands up, and shouts, "We are invading the United States of America to reclaim the territory taken by the US during the 1800s!"
The entire crew of the destroyer doubles over in laughter. When the Captain is finally able to catch his breath, he gets back on the loud-hailer and asks, "Just the four of you?"
The same Mexican stands up again and shouts, "No, we're the last four. The rest are already there!"
Aug '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
For decades, the Left has dominated city government -- big and small cities. It is time for more of us to go out and demonstrate how effective free market policies can benefit all the citizens of our towns, cities, and counties.
Feb '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Does a conservative vision resonate with urban realities? It seems to me that suburbs are naturally conservative in that sprawl is built on each having their own little castle with lawn and garden. There is a comfortable distance to one's neighbor. Travel is by car at one's time of choosing. Cities work best with densification, shared buildings, share transportation, volumes of code for regulation. Its and organism of a sum of its parts, naturally social.
May '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
Look at the map of who voted for who and where in 2012.
Romney got the McCain voters. It too a while to count them all, but he did. He got his base. Obama got his base, and it was bigger.
All the Red for Romney, in sparsely populated areas. Republicans lose if they stay rural and suburban.
Feb '12
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
I guess I'm looking for the natural allies in urban centers. Which cities would embrace conservatism and why? Are there examples of conservative urban centers? Dallas, maybe? Pheonix? Even Salt Lake City elected that Rocky Anderson character. Doesn't socialism fit better in urban centers?
Dec '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
I don't see either of these being realistic options. The Falkland Islands are back in the news, in case anyone missed it (the Benedict option). And I'm currently living in the biggest city I can ever imagine, surrounded by natural beauty and lots of like-minded folks. Large, progressive (but I repeat myself) urban centers are soul-killing and not for me or most conservatives I know focused on raising families and tending to the meaningful life.
I'm much more interested in ~Paules' micro-economy ideas (originating with Bill Whittle). I'm trying to figure out what I'll be able to produce that others might want through local associations when Debtmageddon strikes.
Conservative Christians have been living counter-culture for years and years (my new favorite expression: as American born resident aliens). Soon we're going to have to learn to live counter-economics, but we'll be doing it cheek by jowl with our progressive neighbors, whether we like it or not. The contagion is everywhere.
The final sorting happens... finally, and isn't really up to us anyway.
May '10
Re: Urban, Not Benedict - Don't Retreat To The Hills, Reconquer The Cities
There's obviously some correlation between population density and Leftist philosophies. I don't think big cities are liberal because liberals targeted them for conversion. I think high population density naturally leads to particular Leftist temptations.
A big city is a community of strangers.
A big city is a cornucopia of cultures (and cultural conflicts).
A big city assigns one representative to thousands of citizens he doesn't know.
Cities that lean conservative are mid-size cities where the population is spread out, as they commonly are in flyover country. Even those are more liberal than surrounding areas.