Virtually all Chandler institutions, except the City Council, are woke. Is the Council, elections are on Aug 2, next to fall? Will this be when Chandler turns into a blue city?
The Chandler Chamber of Commerce's monthly magazine has some kind of identity politics theme every other issue. The Chamber pushes leftist policies such as the non-discrimination ordinance that paints Chandler as racist, homophobic and discriminatory. The Chandler Chamber is woke and has endorsed only Democrats for City Council, ignoring Republicans Darla Gonzalez and Farhana Shifa.
The Chandler Unified School District, CUSD80, has a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI director and is up to its gills in Critical Race Theory, CRT, DEI and Social Emotional Learning SEL. Like most school districts in the nation, it is woke. It even co-opted the Chandler Police Department to keep tabs on parent groups opposed to masks, vax mandates and CRT.
Chandler Public Libraries display BLM propaganda in the children's sections, see picture above. They are woke.
Chandler Police and Fire Unions only support Democrats for City Council, at least some of which are wokesters.
Will Chandler turn woke on Aug 2?
All it takes for Chandler to go completely woke is for the city council to flip blue on August 2. Unhelpfully, despite this clear and present danger, Chandler Republicans are only running two candidates, Darla Gonzalez and Farhana Shifa, for three available spots. Will Republicans and independents turn out to vote for these two candidates to at least narrowly hold onto their council majority?
Will they develop a holistic political strategy that doesn't just focus on low property tax rates and good bond ratings but also shapes demographics in a favorable direction long term? What good is it to govern well and make a city prosper, only to hand it over to the opposition to wreck due to a lack of a long term outlook?
Democrats understand this, which is why the Southern border is open, and amnesty with a path to citizenship and onto the voter rolls is always being pushed by the left. Democrats have taken over schools and use their power there to indoctrinate children in their ethno-socialist ideology, producing legions of woke voters. Indeed, not all Democrats are unhappy with Biden because he's too radical, many, especially the young, are unhappy with him because he isn't radical enough. Biden, alas, is hiring for his administration on race and gender, explicitly and out in the open. To many on the left, this is insufficiently woke. A more active demographic policy, perhaps involving heaps of ash, is considered by some wokesters, make no mistake about it.
Use statistical data to improve your chances
Republicans need to do more than shrug their shoulders and assume their own political demise as a natural consequence of their successful policies attracting voters who leave the blight, but bring their blighted politics with them. They need to actively work to shape the demographics in their communities. Just look at DeSantis in Florida doing exactly that. This can be done by doing things that correlate with high density of conservatives, while avoiding doing things that attract leftists.
What correlates with leftist communities?
High density housing
Public/Section 8 housing
Sanctuary status, high numbers of illegal immigrants
Homeless programs and large numbers of homeless
Lax attitude on crime and hence lots of crime
Lots of government programs staffed by lots of government workers
Lots of single moms and broken families, supported by the government
Lots of woke businesses, e.g. entertainment, media, social media
Massive government education complex with teachers unions in charge
Closed shop, workers are forced to join unions
What correlates with conservative communities?
Small size, smaller communities are more red; out of the 50 largest US cities only 11 have a Republican mayor, those are terrible odds if you are on the right
Single family housing dominates
Little or no high density housing
Little or no public housing
Law and order
Small government with few government workers
Few if any government programs, existing government programs focus on intact families (e.g. playgrounds and parks), not welfare (e.g. free stuff for homeless and jobless)
Focus on intact families
Diverse business base, including manufacturing, agriculture, physical technology
School choice and reluctance to or no dealing with teachers unions
Right to work, workers are free to work even if not in a union
Readers can go through these bullet points and figure out themselves where the Republican-led City of Chandler, now pushing close to 300,000 residents, is pursuing policies that attract leftists and hence lead to Republican demise. For more info, including on how to keep cities small without choking growth, continue reading.
Size matters
Size matters because big cities tend to be blue, while small ones tend to be red. All big cities, above 1 Million residents, in the United States, without exception, have Democrat/Leftist mayors, often far left radicals like Muriel Bowser in DC, Lori Lightfoot in Chicago or Eric Garcetti in LA. Phoenix, run by Democrat Kate Gallego, ex-wife of ultra-leftist Ruben Gallego - who Karrin Taylor Robson donated to so generously - is becoming a dangerous cesspool akin to a zombie apocalypse, with massive homeless camps right next to the state capitol. Homelessness is on the rise in Chandler too.
John Giles of Mesa is one of very few Republican mayors serving in cities with more than 500,000 residents. Chandler, by the latest count, has 285,000 people. A big city like LA has hundreds of millions of Dollars to waste on useless homeless programs, including hiring legions of unionized left-voting welfare administrators. A small city doesn't have the scale for such woke waste and hence doesn't attract woke voters nearly as much. Smaller cities also have government under closer voter supervision and control, which tends to keep things more honest, clean and efficient. Economies of scale are valid up to a point, but as evidenced by the data, above around 250,000 residents, the chances of a city being red, clean, safe, livable, are at best 50:50. Beyond that, it quickly becomes deep blue domination.
How to keep growing, successful communities small? Split them. If a city reaches 200,000 residents, just split it in two, with two city halls and two separate administrations, separately controlled by the voters in each of the new communities. This way economies can grow, jobs can be created, without blowing up the government administrative complex.
Playing to ones strengths, and avoiding weak points, is key to success, where success is a long term hold on power and the wielding of that power to keep communities nice, and right.
The table below, imported from Wikipedia, shows the mayors of the largest US cities, and their party affiliation. The first Republican to appear on the list is Lenny Curry of Jacksonville, a city of less than 1 Million, the 12th largest in the US. Both "independent" mayors in the list are on the far political left.
