Earlier today I tweeted that “conservatism needs more fixie bike Portland hipsters who own boutique cupcake food trucks, and fewer Karl Roves.” I wasn’t being ironic (or meta-ironic).
Tweak their pretensions all you want, but nobody has a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship, hard work, and the regulatory hurdles facing a small business owner like a Park Slope hair stylist. Or an Wicker Park tattoo artist. Or a San Francisco pedicab operator. Ignore the Obama sticker on their shop window, this is someone painfully familiar with day-to-day muggings inflicted by City Hall and the IRS. You might be surprised at how receptive they are to a message of smaller government – and just wait until they get their first Obamacare invoice.
Contrast that hardworking, creative hipster capitalist with a DC consultant who mines the deep pockets of big money political contributors for ad-buy commissions. And tell me who has a vested interest in curing what ails our economic culture.