What Comes Next?

The editors of The American Mind at the Claremont Institute have been asking people to participate in a series called “What Comes Next” regarding the election and the future. I hope you’ll consider checking out my piece.

Here’s a sample:

When the election is settled on November 3, 2020, or some weeks thereafter, the homeless in our communities will still exist. Childhood illiteracy will still exist, and potentially be worse because education access for the poor remains deficient thanks to public school policies and efforts to block school choice. The local food bank will still see families coming for food who in normal times would pridefully go without. The battered women’s shelter will still see the bruises and tears of those whose husbands’ souls have collapsed. Conservatives and progressives alike will ignore all these things to focus on Washington.

​Regardless of who wins the presidency, Amy Coney Barrett will be on the United States Supreme Court and the Senate Democrats more likely than not will not have the votes to pack the Court. Conservatives who are squabbling over national imposition of their values as progressives have done have an opportunity to re-litigate federalism with a Supreme Court predisposed to support state and local differences.

I hope you’ll consider the whole thing.

Over the past several years, conservatives have embraced the same mistake progressives have made. They concluded Washington mattered most when, in reality, our daily lives are far more measurably impacted at the local level. Our future politicians come from there. Our roads are paved there. Our children are educated there. Our futures are formed there. As we head ever closer to the November election, remember the races at the bottom of the ballot, not just the top. More importantly, remember to seek the welfare of the city in which you live and, unless that place is Washington, D.C., perhaps spend less time worrying about Washington and more time engaged in your own community.