This week, despite all of the success in Kentucky, its largest and most progressive city overwhelmingly voted against a small occupational tax increase to overhaul its antiquated libraries and bring them up to comparable city standard.
The plan was a plan that showed vision, and it showed dreaming big. It was also a bipartisan plan, supported by Democratic Mayor (for life) Jerry Abramson, but also by Republican Councilwoman Ellen Call, and Greater Louisville, Inc., the chamber of commerce.
Everything was smooth sailing on this plan, and then the attack came:
A Republican councilman and who dreams of being mayor, and a Republican businessman who dreams of being a councilman, Hal Heiner and Chris Thieneman started a grass-roots campaign, called "Support the Libraries, not the Tax." Who wouldn’t want to support the libraries and not the tax? If people believe that something they support can be done without raising taxes, of course they support it. The problem was, there was no vision, and no plans other than this: borrow (use bonds) and spend: with no provision for the increased costs of running and maintaining the newly built libraries. And so Louisville Metro rejected the occupational library fees 2-1.
I am tired of those devoid of ideas pretending that Conservatism is a legitimate system. People did not vote against taxes on Tuesday, they voted on a belief that they could, "support the libraries and not the tax." Conservatives have no legitimate argument to make, they believe in this darwinistic unsociety where the only mantra is: "Taxes bad." The more they shout, the more they can convince themselves that society = socialism, and community = communism. And because they make that association, they justify their lack of belief in society, or community. They believe in nothing but self. What did YOU do, is their retort, because they would do nothing.
People call themselves progressive, because somehow these people have made liberal seem like a bad word. In their world, "educated" and "reading" are bad words, it isn't just "liberal." Conservatives realized that they could not win in academia, because Conservatism is devoid of ideas for solving problems, so they decided to devote much of their effort over the last thirty years disparaging the educated for being "liberal elites."
Have you ever noticed that Republicans run for election on "fiscal conservatism", but run for REelection on what they have accomplished (projects won) for their district.?
Anyways, this has worn me out this week.