Welcome to The Urban Right

They say it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. However, they never tell you that doing the former is much harder than doing the latter.

It is an article of faith on the American right that progressives have wrecked our major cities. Conservatives have long argued that members of the political and academic left are wholly to blame for dysfunctional public schools, rampant crime, an explosion in single motherhood and other social conditions that contribute to the meanness of America’s city streets.

Yet it’s not enough to declare that progressives bear full responsibility for the problems of our troubled cities. Saying that the Democratic Party created these problems doesn’t lead to solutions. Asserting that liberal policies drove capital out of the cities won’t drive capital back in.

We’re in the midst of great political change in this country—but that change is not likely to reach our major cities. Too many politicians in these cities rule without challenge, staying in power for years, even decades. With no real competition, these leaders can afford to turn a blind eye, a deaf ear and a cold heart to the chronic problems facing their locales.

These cities are the places were change is needed the most—but how can that change come?

There must be some way to bring that change to our major cities. There must be some way to bring new ideas, new competition, new standards to areas of the country that cry out for improvement. There must be some way to bring some measure of ideological diversity to cities dominated by one philosophy and one way of doing things.

This won’t be easy. This can’t be easy. Perhaps only a moderate amount of change can be accomplished. Perhaps the major cities, by definition, cannot fully embrace the limited-government vision most conservatives prefer. Perhaps the best one can hope for is a partial victory. Fair enough: that’s better than losing outright.

Our goal is to find a way to make change a reality in America’s major cities. It’s not right that so much political, economic and cultural potential remains untapped because of poor leadership in these regions. It’s not just that so many have to deal with the problems created by one-philosophy rule. It’s not wise for new generations to be held back by old ways.

Hard as it is, it’s much better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. So let’s strike a match.