Among the crowded field of contenders for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee are four big-city mayors. Yet such candidates have little chance, in part because American cities are suffering from a myriad of afflictions, including gross income inequalities, which are driving out middle-class and working-class families. In a recent study, not one construction worker could afford a median-priced house in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or surrounding areas. In an essay with distinct overtones for Canadian big-city politics, Joel Kotkin argues in City Journal that for cities to remain emblematic of society, they need to attract and nurture the middle-class.
France is in the Crosshairs, but the Target is Western Civilization
Theodore Dalrymple in Law & Liberty crystallizes the recent riots in France to a simple equation: “Whole generations have been taught and come to accept that Western civilization consists of slavery, exploitation, and massacre.” Tearing it all down – not merely reforming it – is therefore not just understandable but desirable. Dalrymple disposes of the delusional trope that these are “student” protests, noting the preponderance of Muslim migrants committing the mayhem.
For a luminous glimpse into the singular civilizational achievements the rioters would tear down, read this C2C article by Patrick Keeney.
