Between the wannabe-revolutionaries rioting while Corona-chan spreads in urban cores of many cities causing people to flee (if they can), to the pivotal nature of the suburbs in elections as the swing electorate—who will determine the control of not only the Federal government but state governments—that the Democrats have been increasingly winning in the past few years, one might think that the threats to the suburbs from the elites and urban-fetishists would be front and center on today’s political stage, but then just how many people in the suburbs have even heard of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing initiative?
The “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) initiative that began during the Obama Presidency and really kicked off after his re-election in 2012. The goal of this initiative was to in effect nationalize the suburbs by giving the Federal government the power to help Progressive-controlled cities, if not imposed by direct Federal regulation, fundamentally transform communities destroy the single-family home in favor of dense housing, in disfavor of private transportation, and centralization of communities that are then easier to control.
“It is part of a broader suite of initiatives designed to block suburban development, press Americans into hyper-dense cities, and force us out of our cars. Government-mandated ethnic and racial diversification plays a role in this scheme, yet the broader goal is forced ‘economic integration.’ The ultimate vision is to make all neighborhoods more or less alike, turning traditional cities into ultra-dense Manhattans, while making suburbs look more like cities do now. In this centrally-planned utopia, steadily increasing numbers will live cheek-by-jowl in ‘stack and pack’ high-rises close to public transportation, while automobiles fall into relative disuse.”
How does the Federal government justify this, aside from whatever excuse it used to have a Department of Urban Affairs? Racism, even when they can’t show actual discrimination, via what is known as “disparate impact” whereby any failure to achieve the presumed racial balance and equality of outcome is considered undeniable proof of discrimination that must be corrected:
“This means that you can be found liable for illegally discriminating in a housing-related matter by following some policy that has a disproportionate effect, even though the policy is nondiscriminatory by its terms, in its application, and in its intent.”
Thankfully, Obama is no longer President and Republicans in Congress defunded the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” years ago:
“None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to direct a grantee to undertake specific changes to existing zoning laws as part of carrying out the final rule entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ … or the notice entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool’. . .”
Now, finally, HUD Secretary Ben Carson and President Trump are ending the program—give or take the inevitable lawsuit.
“There was simply no basis in the Fair Housing Act of 1968 for Obama-Biden’s vast AFFH project in social engineering. Since the passage of FHA, the idea of ‘affirmatively furthering fair housing’ has been written into law, but even those later laws authorize nothing like the Obama-Biden overreach. It is a sign of the malady that besets our government that a statement originally intended to call forth vigilance against housing discrimination (‘affirmatively furthering fair housing’) has been larded over with meanings it never contained: economic integration, hyper-dense ‘transit oriented development,’ hostility to automobiles in the name of global warming, regional (rather than local) governance, and more.
“Duly authorized by President Trump, Secretary Carson has swiftly taken steps to root out Obama’s radical rule, along with the bogus accretions that have developed over decades around the idea of ‘affirmatively furthering fair housing.’ Many bemoan a so-called ratchet effect, in which government grows ever larger—or perhaps plateaus—but never gets smaller. Let this be an example to the public and to future presidents that the ratchet effect can be fought.”
However the danger remains, and perhaps has even grown: If Obama’s Vice-President wins the Presidency and the Democrats take the Senate, one of the plethora of hardline Progressive legislation they will pass will to take the regulations of the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” and pass them into statutory law after bulking them up on political steroids. As actual Congressionally passed law, it would take not only a Republican President and Congress, but be able to convince swing voters that they are not imposing racism by removing “protections” of an “anti-racism” law.
Wouldn’t, after the wannabe-revolutionaries’ riots and spread of Corona-chan in dense urban environments cause the suburbs to swing against Joe Biden this November? Perhaps if Trump’s campaign refocused on the suburbs which the GOP has been losing during his Presidency by pointing out that Biden will be far worse for them than he could ever be, much in the same way the suburbs refused to back Hillary Clinton en masse back in 2016. But even then the GOP would have to explain, in a clever way that they have so far not shown to be capable of, why these initiatives and proposals are so dangerous in such as way as to not make it easy for the Democrats to declare that “racist”.
Most people in the suburbs won’t recognize the threat, even absent the “racism” accusation. Most of the changes are to zoning laws and building approval—things that the vast majority of suburbanites are wholly unaware of. And even then the changes will be slow enough such that by the time that suburbanites’ sense of “normalcy” is threatened, it will be too late save for the recriminations of why someone else didn’t do anything to stop it.
The answer to the question “will the suburbs survive” is not likely to be a positive one.
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