Come and take over Crudurbia.
Crudurbia is the nickname a friend of mine gave the blue collar suburban comunity I call home. It is a little town that grew up around a factory that isn’t there anymore.
The business distirict is decaying. We are well supplied with blighted properties, and our present government doesn’t seem to mind.
We are governed by Democrats. Republicans don’t even run in our low income community. They’re style of governing can best be illustrated with the following all too true story.
A councilman’s wife wanted a new car. He didn’t want to pay for one, so he got the town to appoint her code officer, and buy one for her. At the time the town didn’t really have a code. Now we do, as the council has discovered that they can make neighborhood spats pay. I had a cop on my front porch one morning on account of a bees nest!
We want better government. We just can’t seem to get it. Locals aren’t all that eager to run for office. We’re struggling here.
If the Green Party ran a slate of candidates, promising decent, honest government. Those candidates would, almost certainly get elected. If they started solving problems here. Making it easier for decaying properties to be sold and repaired, Fixing it so our young people had someplace to go in the evenings. Getting businesses into the business district. They’d get re elected.
John Fetterman, a progressive in the Bernie Sanders mold is working wonders in Braddock, PA, another little factory town just down the road from Crudurbia.
Every four years I hear about the Green Party’s candidate for president and vice president. Usually they’re good people. I’m happy they’re doing what they’re doing. I also know they aren’t going to get elected.
The Green Party candidate for Mayor of Crudurbia probably would get elected, if she ran a good campaign. But the Greens aren’t interested in Crudurbia, or Youngstown Ohio, or Burlington, Kentucky, or Greensboro, North Carolina, or any of the other communities where they could make a real difference.
So, I offer this challenge to the Greens. Go local. If you make a difference, in local government, people will see that you aren’t just bunch of wide eyed fools, and there will be Greens in Congress and the Senate and yes indeed the White House.
Come on Greens. Today Crudurbia, tomorrow who knows.