The Democratic Party's stranglehold on black and working-class votes has finally been broken, at least for now. An all-out army of celebrities, entertainers, and mainstream media pundits could not bully the American people into ignoring out-of-control inflation and surging violent crime.
Republicans now have a narrow window of opportunity to do what their predecessors failed by lowering crime without brutalizing low-income people and offering an upwardly mobile vision that goes beyond cutting government programs. I have it in my hand.
Anyone who wants to reduce government spending, and I am one of them, needs to support strong Indigenous intermediation structures. These are community institutions established by people experiencing problems of poverty and crime. These are socially harmful local antibodies that have proven successful in administering treatments from within.
Thankfully, the capacity building required to develop these types of organizations requires only a fraction of the capital that government programs do and can be accomplished entirely with private funding.
These organizations also overwhelmingly embody traditional values and have helped many people overcome oppression, poverty and other hardships, hard work, self-respect and responsibility.
But these groups lack support from political elites on both sides of the aisle.
Conservatives often prefer to have intellectual debates about the issues at hand, make abstract policy proposals, and philosophically analyze moral and political failures, so these groups tend to ignore.
The left, on the other hand, treats the poor as fundamentally incapable of self-improvement. They claim to represent people who are fighting against an oppressive social service state, but they are often part of the problem and traditional values are part of the solution. It ignores the relevant fact.
Consider the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the institutions that came into being in its wake.
Near the end of the communist regime, civil society intermediaries began to provide better services to and represent the people than the government, and in doing so earned their loyalty.
of Charter '77 In Czechoslovakia, a protest document signed primarily by intellectuals but with strong public support served to galvanize the public and some political leaders against human rights violations by the state.
Solidarity, the Polish trade union, was highly influential in ending communism in Poland, and its leaders were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. By the end of its first year, 1981, membership exceeded 10 million.
Memorial is a nonprofit organization founded in Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union as part of a protest against decades of Soviet abuses. Its status and activities are still actively contested by the Russian government, proof that its activities are much needed by the Russian people.
Each of these organizations leveraged public trust and goodwill into political capital overseas. American conservatives, like other sympathetic factions, supported these institutions in Eastern Europe. When the Iron Curtain finally came down, these groups helped provide an alternative to the sprawling, repressive state.
For the next administration, these are real success stories that can be replicated at scale today. They still exist today.
“”cajun navy'' was formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and re-formed to help in the aftermath of the storm, rescuing as many as 10,000 people stranded on rooftops.
Today, as hurricanes batter the Delta and Gulf Coast, those same fishermen and a growing network of volunteers continue to rescue people from rooftops. It's a huge organization, but surprisingly fast and effective. Even though it is run entirely by volunteers, it was installed on site before FEMA arrived.
Reverend Charlene Turner Johnson has worked for decades to transform Highland Park, one of Michigan's most vulnerable and drug-plagued cities, into a safe and prosperous town. She helps the most vulnerable people find jobs, start businesses, learn important life skills, and renovate cities.
Candice Freeman, Founder ofway of life” uses grants to reduce gun violence in the community and improve the physical health of children in the community. Her unique approach works by combining education, intervention, and food access events.
What all these success stories have in common is that their leaders live in their very own zip codes, not in wealthy suburbs. They know best what needs to be done, are trusted by the people they are helping, and know how to work around problems and solutions.
The important thing is that the administrative state is not large enough to crush these groups with regulations. Nor is it a hands-off approach that claims that everything will be solved with tax cuts and deregulation. Rather, our political leaders should identify these successful intermediaries and actively connect them with public and private sector resources to replicate their successes on a large scale.
Empowering men and women in this kind of work transforms communities and lives in ways that no white paper or government program could ever do.
That's why it's time to abandon the dominant model of identity politics and large nonprofits that claim to speak for the poor while simply profiting from their work. Find the men and women who are already changing the world, empower them, and give them what they need to make the world a better place. If conservative donors were serious about real solutions, they would.
If not, they must be prepared to replace themselves with the Democratic Party and be eliminated in the next election.
Bob Woodson is the founder and president of the Woodson Center and editor of .The Road to American Renewal: Red, White, and Black Volume 2”
