Out among the various exhibitors here at the Washington Briefing (the usual suspects: Exodus, the foundation for sexual orientation rehabilitation, was "out" in full force) stands a lone man selling the lessons of his life. He grew up in Baltimore County and has a message about conservatism that he hopes will galvanize poor blacks to take control of their lives -- and join the Republican Party, of course.

This is not a message too many people will be receptive to, but I had a nice conversation nonetheless with David S. Higgins, the author of Poor, Black, and Conservative. He told me about what he sees as a correlation between liberal policies and the eroded social fabric in cities such as New Orleans and Baltimore. (It wasn't an especially rigorous analysis, but he showed the zeal of the convert, and who can argue with that?)

So I had to ask: What does he think of HBO's The Wire? Higgins said it was an accurate picture of the social and political conditions of inner-city Baltimore ... and the failure of liberal governance to solve its problems. This view isn't shared by the show's creators, self-professed liberals all, but they likely harbor the same cynicism toward grand reformational schemes.

When I asked Higgins how conservative policies could solve the problems of a place like East Baltimore, he talked mainly about the beneficial effects of a strict justice system on crime. I think a closer look would reveal, as The Wire dramatizes, that just such a system -- like the war on drugs -- perpetuates the cycle of poverty rather than helping people lift themselves out of it.