The Daily Signal - From Reagan to Trump: Rethinking Poverty Solutions in America

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Ever since that former California Democrat Governor named Ronald Reagan gave his “Time for Choosing” speech, Conservative’s have wandered further and further away from engaging the issue of poverty. However, Reagan’s ‘do a little arithmetic’ point on poverty budgets vs how much help it’s been to the poor community still pencils out. President Trump shocked the GOP establishment when he went into Detroit in 2016 and asked, “are you better off now?” Eight years later the Black and Latino community support for the GOP has grown to record levels but has the policy the effort to bring free-market, liberty-based solutions grown to match? We sit down with Dr Ed Kornegay and Ehi Aimiuwu from the Center for Poverty Solutions and the Illinois Policy Center to hear about the success that they have had in Chicago and can that be exported to places like Richmond, Norfolk, Charlottesville or even… DC? Keep Up With The Daily Signal   Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:    The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2284199939⁠ The Signal Sitdown: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376⁠   Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL7765680741⁠   Victor Davis Hanson: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327⁠     Follow The Daily Signal:    X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal⁠ Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast. I'm your host, Joe Thomas, Virginia correspondent for The Daily Signal. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you're a first-time listener, The Daily Signal, brings you fact-based reporting and conservative commentary on politics, policy, and culture. And I hope you join our band of regular listeners to our podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and also take it. Take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast.

You can find additional content at daily signal.com. Now, let's get started with today's conversation right after this. It is the state policy network and special coverage again, thanks to the DailySignal. DailySignal.com. It's that rare opportunity where Joe Thomas gets to say I'm associated with some of the great minds and conservative thought. and they don't want me to say too much more about it because they're probably going to have people quit on them if I keep associating my name with, you know, Victor Davis-Ans and stuff like that. But I appreciate their efforts as well as the Virginia Institute for Public Policy.

My supporters, I've worked with them for 20 years and a great dew tank full of folks who are putting the rubber to the road. Our next guests have done exactly the same thing. And if there's an issue that 10 years ago, I would. would have said is the one that's most frustrating to me is that the conservative-minded, constitutionally based scholars were ceding the playing field of poverty to the progressives. We'll go find the rich people, the mysterious rich people to tax them and get money. And it's 60 years since the great society started, and we have four times as many poor people. But I'm preaching to the choir, Ahee, as she just said, call her Ahe.

from the Center for Poverty Solutions and Dr. K. Eddie Cornegade, both with the Illinois Center. Illinois Policy Institute. Illinois Policy Institute. Thank you guys both were coming. You are award winners for your efforts on poverty. Talk about, first off, how did your journey begin? I see the Marine Corps pin so, uh-huh. But how did your work in this field begin? Well, thank you so much for this opportunity. I've been working in the city of Chicago in the urban center since 1997-98. My first point into Chicago was into one of the worst communities. I moved from North Carolina to Chicago, which was the Rosen community,

and started working with men that were in a shelter there and created a program and a program for a transitional program that we started. And that was my first opportunity to actually sit down and listen to community members and ask them what they needed and craft a program that they had invested in and would begin to transition themselves from homelessness into employment and, you know, wholesome living. So I presume you came there from North Carolina with thoughts in your head of what you wanted to do. How did you have to be flexible? And when you started to hear these men's stories, how did you have to work on what your thoughts were coming there to get it into practice?

Well, I would say that my experiences weren't that much different from their own. Maybe not to the point to where they were so severe that I wasn't able to claw myself back. But the compassion that I had came with a level of understanding and authenticity and a willingness to embed myself in a community that needed me, needed my example, and for someone to listen to them and to see their value and their worth and their dignity. So, A, so talk about the center and why the right answers have been, you know, slipping through our fingers too frequently. and I don't know why it is. I mean, we're flagshiped in Charlottesville. It's one of the great university towns in the United States, yet we have this horrific poverty issue

that everyone seems to kind of keep behind some hedges and nobody talks about it. You know, and are we at a tipping point where people are realizing that all these years without guilt, without retribution, without any sort of rebuke, just say, listen, okay, we got it. We tried it. We need to try something different. Is that where we are today? Yeah, and I would say the biggest answer to that is we need to be on the ground. A lot of organizations like corporations and nonprofits, they avoid being on the ground.

And with the Center for Poverty Solutions, that was our number one thing. We worked directly with the Block Club leaders on the west side of Chicago, and we work with leaders on the south side of Chicago, and we built trust with them. Like we go to their events, we talk to them about the issues that they're going through. We see it in real time while we're there. And we bring them into the space where policy researchers and policymakers are working together and get the direct answer directly from the source. And Dr. Cornagay has this phrase, and I'm going to butcher. I'm going to butcher. But those who are closest to the problem are often the closest to the solution.

We just have to give them that power. and I feel like the Center for Poverty Solutions has helped people regain that power. Is that one of the things that we've done over these 60 years in our war on poverty is tell people, no, you can't fix it. Somebody else needs to fix it for you instead of saying, no, no, you know what you're, you know what you need to do. Yeah, I think that has been the case for the last, however so years, that usually someone who doesn't have that experience,

who doesn't know what it's like to be poor, they try to come up with a solution and it doesn't quite yet hit the actual problem. Well, yeah, because you show up and you say, well, here's what I want you to do, and it has little connection to what's going on in the neighborhoods. Crime is obviously one of the, is it a manifestation of, or is it one of the causations of the poverty issue? I feel like it's a manifestation, but you're there, I'm not.

Tell me, do you fight crime by creating prosperity, or do you have to fight crime first and then create prosperity? I think that word manifestation is perfect for what we're doing. I see poverty as a spirit, poverty as something that's self-production, as well as poverty as a public safety issue. And so when you begin to address poverty by removing barriers to work, by creating pathways for people who might be skilled but uncredentialed,

that are already doing kinds of small jobs in the community and really great examples of resilience. When you begin to look at that like that, you see that that restoration of dignity, through work and the recognition of their individual value and collective value produces a reduction in crime. That's what we believe. Well, it's funny because I have three kids of my own

and I experienced it with them and their friends, and I truly believe this is a spiritual point as well. God has given us all gifts. And the most heartbreaking thing about poverty is you go into some of these neighborhoods and you see people who have either been told, no, you don't or don't try to find it. And it sounds like you've been working in the space of figuring out, you're gifted at this, you should be doing this.

Is that, am I too far off? No, no, not at all. And just staying with the God purpose and God, theme, he gives us purpose. And what has happened for many people because of poverty and because of what it does and how government has been used to address it, it saps people of their purpose. It repurposes them for something that is unnatural and not a design to actually unlock the real purposes that they have. And so when you begin to identify them by co-laboring and co-creating, it begins to unlock things. We see the potential begin to come out. And I think real examples of

American resilience are what we are running into. Examples that are intergenerational, cross-cultural, beyond the kinds of constraints that religion or ideologies might persist. So we get at the core of people's prejudgments and biases and helped him to understand. that the language of difference isn't the one that produces the kinds of prosperity and liberation and citizenship that we know will connect you to the founding documents, to an understanding of federalism, to an understanding of subsidiarity, the methods and methodologies that you need to be able to access the great success that's embedded in the idea and the ideals of America.

Is it unfair to point out that it sounds like, as I listen to you both talk, that one of the most important things is get the heck out of the way and let people, you know, help them figure out what their path is and then get out of their way and let them follow it. So I won't say necessarily get out of their way. All right. I'm the talk show host. I'm supposed to be the shock jock.

you know, consider me Howard Stern in a silt jacket. But I will say, instead of getting out the way, just step to the side and hold their hand through it. Like, I think that's a bigger piece to this. People have lived through this. I personally have lived through poverty and been told that I was supposed to do certain types of things. And I had to figure it out with an organization that I went to IC Stars.

They kind of held my hand on the side as I was fighting through poverty. and I think that's the solution for us now is to stand by the side. Well, they kind of show you like, okay, these are the issues, these are the ways that we're trying to get through this. And then we kind of lean in and say, okay, how can we support that? Well, in my own poverty journeys, it has been my experience that you get so close to the trees. You have no idea how big the forest is. You just know it's everywhere. And it sounds like that's what you're talking about, is saying, no, if you step a little over here,

you're going to see how to find your way out. Oh, yeah. It definitely feels that way. And it's ongoing. And like Dr. Carnegie said, it's a spiritual battle that is ongoing. And it takes a lot of strength and a lot of resilience to get through it. Do you find that when you show this to people, I work sad story. So we moved into Charlottesville.

And my wife wanted to go get my daughter into Girl Scouts. this is well she's 25 now so do the math and she was told by the director of the Girl Scout troops in the area we didn't have a Girl Scout troop in that school because quote it was the hood and I said and I said to my wife when she comes back and told me isn't that specifically where you want groups like the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts and that kind of thing and so she started one herself. She said, well, what do we have to do to start one? They said, well, fill out this form and you start a banking. So they did. My daughter each week would come with two extra girls from her class saying, oh, she's joining with us. We must have had 15 girls by the time.

And I mean, some of this, you know, parents had issues and there was issues with that. But these girls were like a dry sponge. And when we told them, hey, you do this and you will earn this. and it was like you dropped them in water and they grew in front of your eyes. I mean, I wanted to hire them all at the radio station because they were out there selling cookies better than anyone. They were the top cookie seller. It was a brand new troupe. But that's the thing, is letting people know they can is almost something once you've done it. You just have to let them follow it.

Absolutely. I totally agree. And the block clubs that we're working with, which I think is a powerful phenomenon in Chicago, it's a clear example of people when you give them the opportunity to take care of their community. They'll do it. They're already out there doing the work. We're just coming alongside of them. They're the ones that have taken these concepts and move them forward.

The one thing that's missing is the fact that there's a capstone on their problem solving skills. And so what we do is bring that research. We bring critical thinking and decision making. We bring the ideas of civic engagement and involvement and help them to articulate their ideas on a higher level so that they increase in their agency and can see the capacity for their flourishing to just unfold in a brand new way.

And that excites the community. That is champions the cause that I think is a value that oftentimes doesn't get articulated. You mentioned block leaders. Is this something that, you know, because it sounds like, you know, like so many things that are holistic, that you have to be doing it on a small level. You can't come in and say, the whole city of Chicago is going to do it this way. You've got to go to each block leader.

And now do you find them in a, you know, community center or do you just find that that person on the block that knows everybody, you know, and it's just. really a catch as catch can, but every block has those leaders? Well, not every block has the leaders, but the way that we came into and were introduced to them was in our community meetings, not sitting back in our office, but going out and being called into those meetings. And there was a Pastor Dolly Sherman showed up at one of our meetings. And her voice was just so pronounced. The only thing that I could do is say, that's what I'm looking for. And that's who I want to work with and immediately it shifted the way that we began to do our work it accelerated it to

such a degree that we are able to actually with the help of the beth and ravenile curry foundation and rising tides and templeton foundation and spn to be able to put this work on they recognize that and so is what's exciting about the block clubs is that it's a yes it's a small but mighty coalition and they desire to actually have more block clubs involved. But their examples, I think, once they're showcased and once they're infused with more support, we're going to see not only a deepening of their ability to do what they've done, which has transformed their blocks, but for that to spread to more blocks in the communities

that we're working with right now. Ahi, I'm a child of the busing generation, and I've found very interesting. I used to work in the Philadelphia area, and there was a program. It took about 12 years. They took a school over, and instead of just traditional K-to-12 or K-8, K-to-6, they kept all the kids all the way through senior high school, and they made the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th graders go back and teach. Part of their English class was go back and teach in first grade

and math and all those other things. And a couple of things they learned was not only did the graduation rates go up, college enrollment rates went up, and that was what they were looking at. But what they didn't realize, and this is something that I carried with me forever, is the college graduates and the college participant came back to the community and started their businesses. They didn't go off and find some other place to live. They said, no, I'm going back where I grew up.

And that sense of this is my community, I think is what I'm hearing Dr. Kay talking about is that this is my block and I want to make it a great place. Is that what you're seeing? Oh, yeah, that's definitely what we're saying. Going back to Pastor Dolly, I've been going to their block club parties. I've been going to their graduation events and you'll see people coming back and like helping out. Like they're bringing food from their houses. Like the boys are helping like fix the generator in the back. Like they're doing what they can. to like make sure that that community that neighborhood that block is thriving and that's that's unbreakable and I think of my mind so is this exportable I mean you're doing it in Chicago

in Richmond in in the D.C. area I mean where I mean it's similar I mean I think it I would say D.C. despite the fact that we all see the pretty houses where the congressmen and the lobbyists live but I mean the people who live in D.C. It's one of the most poverty destroyed cities out there. Richmond has terrible problems with it. We talk about school choice, and that's one of my great disappointments, is we had a great coalition of black community leaders, inner city leaders, poor communities, saying, yeah, we want that. And that's one aspect of it.

But how transportable, how repeatable is this into other communities, Dr. Kay? I think it's something that is highly replicable, and that's our vision, is to take this and scale it across the U.S. And I put it like this, wherever there's a kitchen table, there's an opportunity for a block club to emerge. And that's my experience is I just remember how profound the kitchen table was in my parents' home, whether it was someone getting jobs or whether it was somebody for organizing to vote, whether it was something around school desegregation at that time.

That kitchen table was very powerful. And what we're being invited into most often, we go out into the communities is right into the kitchen tables. And so that kitchen table experience is where the movement continues to be carried on. And so yes, to your question, I think it's for big cities, for medium-sized cities, for rural communities that have been just gutted because the textile industries have left in poverty and violence have come in. And so the cityscape looks so similar to some of the areas on the west and south sides of Chicago.

So yes to your question. If it can work in Chicago, this is what I've always heard. If you can do it in Chicago, you can do it anywhere. Well, amen to that. How do people, can people reach out and say, hey, I'm interested? Are you ready for people in Norfolk to email you and say, hey, I'm ready. I'm ready. I want to get started? Oh, yeah.

You can reach me yet. No, no, I'm serious. No, I'm serious because, I mean, we're on in 100 cities across the country listening to this. And I want somebody in Portland saying, hey, or San Bernardino or, you know, we're just getting on San Antonio's case because they want to spend all this money building an arena for the Spurs and downtown. I'm like, is this helping anybody or is this just, you know, getting you on, you know, cityscapes are us magazine or something? So I'm really serious. Can people go to your website or email you? How should they do it?

Yeah, I'm trying to think what's the quickest way for people to contact? via email at e. Cornegade at illinois policy.org and e.miawu at illinois policy.org. That's how you can get us or go to our website at IPI Illinois policy.org and just click on the staff and boom there we are. We're as close as as an email or phone call. Please that's how we managed to meet and I'm so honored that you both were able to come on and be part of the story because, you know, I've been doing this a long time, and I feel like we're right there. I feel like, you know, it's so close, and, you know, people are starting to see it, and people are starting to feel it, and we just have to be ready. And thank you both for showing us that you're out there.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you for having me. That'll do it for today's show. don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new episodes from The Daily Signal. Every weekday you can catch top news in 10 to keep up with the day's top headlines in just 10 minutes, and every weekday afternoon catch Victor Davis Hansen's thoughtful analysis for the Daily Signal. If you like what you hear on this show, would you take a minute and leave us comment? We love hearing your feedback.

Thanks again for being with us today.