Scott Bruun: Why the GOP Should Look to Portland’s Urban Conservatives

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Scott Bruun, GoLocalPDX MINDSETTER™

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey via Compfight cc

My friend Greg lives in Sellwood. He drives a Subaru Outback with an OPB sticker on the rear window. He supports public education, and has two young kids enrolled in the local public school. Greg, more often than not, can be found wearing shorts and Birkenstocks. Though, as his eyes remain strong, you won’t find him wearing hipster-style glasses. Not yet, at least.

He and his family love Portland’s ambiance: its unique culture, its restaurants, the coffee, Saturday market. They buy locally grown organic foods whenever possible. They bike. And often, Greg and family will jump on Tri-Met or MAX to get wherever they’re going. In every modern sense of the word, Greg is about as “Portland” as one could be.

And he is a Republican.

A slient minority

He’s not alone, of course. There are still a few of that persuasion that live here in Portland, though they’re definitely a minority and usually silent. Silent, because as Greg and others have learned, Portland is absolutely progressive and tolerant toward free speech – so long as that free speech follows, absolutely, the inviolable rules of progressivism and tolerance.

Greg is also not alone when it comes to what he wants from his city. It’s probably a safe bet to assume that most Portlanders, not just Republicans, want their city to work. They want Portland’s small businesses, bistros and cafés, to flourish. They want the best possible schools for their kids. They want clean streets and a dependable transportation system. They want to be safe. They want to freely worship, or not, without prejudice. And they tend to combine a deep love of community with fiery individualism. Individualism that resents meddlesome, bureaucratic nitpicking.

Rod Dreher, a conservative journalist, wrote a book called “Crunchy Cons” a few years back. In it, Dreher describes a growing conservative counter-culture found in America’s big cities. These “crunchy cons” are best described as people who combine urban-left tastes with core conservative values. Urban conservatives who, for example, support environmental stewardship and the need to “conserve” natural resources. People who support free markets, but as a means not an end. People who strongly support small business yet are often skeptical of big business, just as they are skeptical of big government and big labor.

These urban conservatives, including my friend Greg, also seem to enjoy the eclectic cultural and social mix found in cities, yet remain firm in the belief that strong families are foundational. And while many of these urban conservatives have a strong anti-establishment bent, many also remain firm in faith. After all, no one in history was more anti-establishment than Jesus Christ.

Which brings us back to Portland, and the question of ‘why does this matter’? It matters because for the longest time, the powers-that-be among Oregon Democrats have taken political success in Portland for granted. At the same time, Oregon Republicans, hats-in-hand, have largely given-up on any prospect for success in Stumptown.

That these combined factors fail to serve the best interests of Portland, or anywhere else for that matter, is not hypothesis. We need only look at Detroit to see the ruin of single-party domination.

The good news

The good news is that Greg lives in Portland, he wants what’s best for Portland, and he votes.

He and growing set of influential Portlanders want all the cool cultural amenities, yet are increasingly frustrated with mediocre schools, deteriorating infrastructure, smug leadership and bureaucratic inertia. Many are also among the Portlanders increasingly fatigued with the growing assault on their own individualism. An assault posed by Portland’s own brand of Orwellian thought-police, otherwise known as “progressivism”.

Simply put, they are a prime audience for new ideas and a new political message.

So perhaps, as the Republican Party in Oregon considers new strategies, and as Republicans everywhere look to rebrand by addressing real-world problems of real-world Americans, they should look again at Portland. A new political effort, one that understands that conservatives in rural Texas look and act a lot different than urban-conservatives in Portland, might find traction. It would certainly provide a breath of fresh air to challenge Portland’s reign of political complacency.

In the meantime, watch out! That Portlandia-looking guy standing next to you at the food cart may very well be a conservative Republican.

Scott Bruun is a fifth-generation Oregonian and recovering politician. He lives with his family in the 'burbs, yet dutifully commutes to Portland every day where he earns his living on the fifth floor of Big Pink.

Banner photo credit: iStock