“Urban Conservatism”: The New Agenda for the Republican Party

By Brandon Brice

In my recent article, “Jobs, Baby, Jobs”, the idea of job creation and common sense dominated the main theme. As conservatives, libertarians or moderates we realize that now President Barack H. Obama is our new Commander and Chief, but we can always look towards the future. Vice Presidential candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, during the debates, once suggested that America return back to basics. Gov. Palin was absolutely correct, but the audience she missed are the millions of low income families nationwide. In the next three to four years, the GOP should adopt the agenda of “urban conservatism”, a movement that targets low income families and stresses common sense, towards financial literacy, education enhancement and self sufficiency. Skeptics suggest that urban areas do not usually vote conservative, but they’re wrong.

Imagine a Republican Party that stresses common sense and educates people on credit, financial literacy and the importance of investments. Let’s think for a moment, as our grandmothers and grandfathers once said, if we can’t afford it then we simply don’t need it. The common practices of our relative’s years ago to spend frugally and save for a rainy day are essential to our own personal economic development. This agenda concentrates of helping people to help themselves, via self sufficiency. Republicans in the past have told people not to depend on the federal government, yet haven’t showed people how to get off of federal programs. Urban Conservatism does just that, it targets low income neighborhoods and helps people understand how to start a business or the tools and skills needed to interview, hence getting people off of welfare. The agenda translates into action, social action that reflects showing folks how to refrain from the government. GOP leaders and politicians have a history of telling and talking about self sufficiency, but the party until now hasn’t given any solutions. For example, former President George W. Bush was on target with the No Child Left Behind Act, which sought out the real problems in education, corruption, unqualified teachers.