By Bob Woodson
The Democratic stranglehold on the black and working-class vote has finally been broken, at least for the moment. A full-standing army of celebrities, entertainers, and mainstream media pundits were not able to bully Americans into disregarding out-of-control inflation and spiking violent crime.
Now Republicans have a narrow window of opportunity to deliver where their predecessors have failed, by reducing crime without brutalizing lower-income populations and putting forth a vision for upward mobility that goes beyond just slashing government programs.
Anyone who wants to cut government spending — and I am one of those people — needs to support robust indigenous mediating structures. These are local institutions created by those experiencing the problem of poverty or crime. They are antibodies within socially toxic neighborhoods that have demonstrated they can successfully administer cures from within.
Thankfully, the capacity building needed to develop these kinds of organizations requires just a fraction of the capital that government programs do and can be achieved completely with private money.
These organizations also overwhelmingly embody traditional values that have helped many people overcome oppression, poverty and other hardships, hard work, self-respect and responsibility among them.