I got a glimmer of an answer to this question the other night when I went to a candidate’s night meeting of the Tri-City Tea Party. Most of the candidates for Vista City Council were present. The two I liked were conservative, smart and articulate. One that I didn’t like was, let us say, lackluster. Ok, I’m being charitable. He could barely say his own name.
I came to find out after the meeting, that he was endorsed by the public employees union.
Several very interesting points here:
1. The unions care about who is on Vista City Council. The typical conservative has no idea and even less interest in local elections. We have book clubs and debate the finer points of conservative theory.
2. A guy like the one I saw is probably pretty easy for the unions to control. After all, if he gets in office, he will owe it to their support. And, he doesn’t seem like a deep thinker who is going to have his own agenda.
3. A guy like this one can move up through the ranks of city, county and state government. The Left grooms a deeper bench for itself than we do.
4. However, a guy like this one will not acquire IQ points, just from moving up the ladder. Case in point: Joe Biden.
5. Cities and school districts across the country have been governed by Leftists for the past 40 years or more. That is why so many cities and schools are failing.
This is why this post belongs on the Home Front. Everyone has a back yard. Conservatives tend not to tend their own backyard, at least where politics is concerned. The virtue of the Tea Party movement is that it got fiscal conservatives off the bench and out on the playing field. Not a moment too soon, either.
It is high time the more conservatives, especially social conservatives got personally involved in local governing.