America is too large and populous to have law and order in its streets maintained by the President of the United States without cooperation from local officials, said Ken Blackwell, former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, who offered his remarks on the Wednesday edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Blackwell and Marlow discussed protests and riots following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN.

Blackwell said, “Too many mayors are hiding in the shadows. Too many mayors don’t accept the fact that they are on the tip of the spear. We are a big country in terms of landmass. We’re over 325 million people. The president cannot control the streets from the Oval Office. Governors cannot control the streets from their governors’ mansions. It is the mayor — the mayors across this country — and local officials, police chiefs, and police forces that have to bring law and order and peace to our streets.”

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Blackwell added, “There’s a false juxtaposition of this being a struggle between people to peacefully protest versus wild West criminality.

Blackwell said that “intelligence officials across various levels of government” told him riots are part of an “assault by a domestic terrorist organization and their cohorts.”

Framing America as a country pathologized by “racism” is a “false narrative,” held Blackwell.

“The New York Times has their 1619 program, where they are spinning that narrative that America was born in racism — America will always be racist — and, therefore, we are a special case that must be beaten in the world court as one of the perpetrators of misery,” Blackwell stated.

Americans must not underestimate the impact of dialogue between themselves — with family, neighbors, and coreligionists — to “push back” against false characterizations of America as a “racist nation,” explained Blackwell. He noted that such conversations, done effectively, have compounding benefits over time in affecting popular attitudes and policies.

“You have to do what you can, with what you have, where you are, and with whom you can make that contact with,” said Blackwell of conservatives sharing their values with others who have little exposure to conservatism.

Blackwell continued, “It might be a small audience, but it will grow exponentially. That’s why it’s so important that folks like me and you can have this conversation, and believe me, it will have a multiplying effect, but we have to have it, and we have to be honest with one another.”

“I’ve criss-crossed this country,” Blackwell shared. “I’ve [traveled] all over this country and gone in the barrios and the neighborhoods and talked with people. What I came away realizing is that social and political and cultural change takes place on a variety of levels. Sometimes it takes direct street protests, lawful street protests. Sometimes it takes working in legislatures. Sometimes it takes court action, but it also takes family member talking to family member, neighbor talking to neighbor, church member talking to church member.”

Blackwell went on, “That’s heart-to-heart genuine dialogue. That’s how we effect change. It is not always rapid change, but you [need] the imagination of Jonathan Swift to think there has not been substantial change in racial attitudes in America over 240 years. We went from the institution of slavery to electing a black man [as] President of the United States in 240 years.”

“You have not seen that sort of change in any country,” Blackwell added. “Does that mean that everybody who finds himself on that lower rung of the ladder has had their challenges, promises, and opportunities expanded and dealt with? No, but as I said before, great nations [are not built] by growing government.”

Blackwell emphasized the importance of grassroots dialogue in expanding conservatism’s appeal across the public.

“It’s going to happen by good people doing great things and good things together, neighbor to neighbor, church member to church member, family member to family member,” concluded Blackwell. “That’s the way. That’s the human agency that we have to put against our challenges, and we cannot allow folks with a false narrative and no data to drive the conversation. We must have the courage to fight back.”

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