OPINION:
The opening line of “A Tale of Two Cities” keeps coming to mind: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …”
It seems an appropriate analogue to the nation these days after a century of the creeping specter of government and the institutional segregation that it has created.
The persistent lies about the effectiveness of the welfare state may, however, finally be catching up with the left. As a result, we may be seeing the very beginning of a seismic shift in our politics — one that brings both danger and opportunity.
A recent poll by The Associated Press showed that support for President Biden is collapsing in the Black community. Only 41% want him to run for reelection, while only 55% said they would be likely to support him in November 2024. Contrast that with a 90% approval rating just two years ago.
If Mr. Biden runs, expect the activist corps of the left to act like a cornered animal. We saw it in 2020, with violence, rage, riot, killing and destruction cheered on for political gain.
Even a swing of a few points in support or turnout for the Democratic presidential candidate among the Black community could be enough to ensure Republicans recapture the White House and the Senate majority. George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, the Marxists behind Black Lives Matter and the funders of antifa — or whatever they will call themselves this election cycle — will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening.
While the left schemes, Republicans have an extraordinary opportunity to finally create and deliver an agenda specifically tailored for America’s Black community marginalized by the Democrats’ failed welfare culture.
Republicans love to talk about how they are the party of ideas, but they consistently fail to show up and make the sell to the Black community. While the left is likely figuring out how to have a replay of 2020’s chaos and division, Republicans should be carrying into minority communities a message of change that speaks directly to their needs.
Republicans should directly counter the claims of systemic racism and White supremacy that have become the latest justifications for the lack of progress with key performance indicators despite trillions spent on welfare programs.
On housing, some two-thirds of public housing and federal housing assistance goes to minorities, including 45% to Blacks. All the big brains in the conservative think tanks should come up with a plan to help these majority female-led households obtain housing that isn’t an insult to their humanity.
Public schools have been failing the Black community for decades, regardless of how much money Randi Weingarten squeezes from politicians to throw at the problem. School choice is wildly popular among minority communities, producing better outcomes at a lower cost. Republicans should intensify these efforts, ditch the one-size-fits-all public education paradigm, and work with urban community leaders to craft programs tailored to the needs of local populations to ensure academic attainment.
On health care, our public and safety-net hospitals should be among the best in the nation. Republicans should be supporting more federal and state direct grants for these institutions. The GOP should develop a plan that addresses chronic conditions that affect the Black population, including diabetes, asthma and heart disease.
The idea that work requirements for welfare are extreme is as demeaning to Blacks as saying that they’re too unsophisticated to have voter identification. The GOP can bring federal and state tax incentives for companies to advance urban job creation, training and vocational programs.
On immigration, Democrats want to resettle illegals in Black communities in Chicago and other cities. Republicans should speak directly to those neighborhoods about how illegal immigration hurts opportunities for economic independence.
On drugs, gangs and crime, it is indisputable that a more conservative approach can save more Black lives in the inner cities than what the far left offers.
None of these will rebuild Black families or the churches that have been intentionally decimated by poverty pimps and leftists who sought to replace those pillars of the community with the state. But the political and moral imperative means opening wide the door to these voters.
If Democrats go nuclear, and if history is any guide, they will, we’ll have another summer of rage driven by their professional activists and the media. Republicans can either look aloof and sound outraged, or they can help the Black community and others in need discover the real America they’ve long been promised but have been intentionally kept from finding.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq.” He served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004.
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