Monday, March 22, 2010

The real representation gap

PDFPrintE-mail

Written by Johnathan McGinty Friday, 17 April 2009 13:50

While we all had a good laugh at the expense of the teabaggers this past week, there is an unfortunate serious side to the antics of the extreme right and its marriage to the mainstream Republican Party, particularly here in Georgia. It's something I've mulled over for a little bit, but this post at Daily Kos regarding President Obama's plans to modernize our rail system crystalized it for me ...

The northeast corridor is actually in good shape. That Chicago hub could use some serious help, as well as the Sacramento-San Diego line in California. That Georgia network might be nice, but they want to secede, so send the money (and jobs and economic development) elsewhere.

Granted, it's just a blogger and not an administration official, but I think the point is valid.

If Georgia is going to be run by a state legislature that refuses to pass a resolution honoring the sitting president, but has a State Senate that gleefully passes a resolution laying out the guidelines for our secession, why would the administration want to work with us?

If Georgia is going to be repesented by a collection of Republican congressmen who are openly discussing the president's non-existent plan to implement a Marxist dictatorship, who is going to credibly fight for us in the Capital?

If Georgia is going to have a governor who thinks he can pick and choose what elements he wants to take from the economic stimulus package, all the while bashing the actual package, then how can he seriously work to secure said funding?

If Georgia is going to play host to the largest of the preposterous tea parties, inviting Sean Hannity to broadcast live from the event and lining up countless elected Republican officials to throw out unfounded and comically inaccurate accusations and insults at various Democratic leaders, why should the president have much of a desire to see that we get our fair share?

Those who were involved with the Organized Tea-mper Tantrums gladly just made stuff up regarding 'taxaxtion without representation' but they failed to recognize the broader picture ... which is their shenanigans are marginalizing Georgia to the point that we don't have anyone really making a credible case on why we should, for instance, be included in the national vision for a high-speed rail system.

Their own actions - and misguided, self-serving and ill-informed arguments - are doing nothing but stirring up the most fervent of right-wing believers, frustrating a majority of independents and moderate Republicans and leaving the rest of us progressives to sit back and watch the slow-motion car crash unfold before our eyes.  All the while, we're viewed as even more of a laughingstock and shut out of the discussions regarding the serious issues of the day.

Don't be surprised to see Congress redraw that national rail system plan, shaving a few lines away from Georgia and the Southeast, and if that happens, I think we need to start asking in a louder voice ... 'where exactly are the grown-ups in Atlanta?'

Comments (9)add comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed
Xon: ...
First, the "leaving asides"...

1. Leaving aside the fact (true as it is) that the "Tea Parties" are by and large libertarian and "grassroots" (and not at all associated with the GOP, per se) in inspiration, but are now being crashed by GOP mainliners who simply want to be where the cameras are...

2. Leaving aside the fact that your own quirky and good sense of humor has been mysteriously and completely laid aside so that you can engage in the ever-so-mature act of namecalling the people at the events ("Tea Parties? More like Teabaggers, arp arp arp!")...

3. Leaving aside the fact that a whole lot of issues and causes that have no necessary connection to one another are all being mixed up together because, a. that's what happens in politics, especially democratic politics, and b. that's what happens when a bunch of people come together at once to protest a common source of dislike, but all have very different reasons for disliking, and c. that's what happens when a bunch of people get together and many of them are not particularly "involved" in politics on a regular basis one way or the other...

4. Leaving aside, in particular, the fact that state sovereignty has become a completely neglected issue by most "conservatives" these days, especially the talking heads like Hannity and Limbaugh, and so there is simply no sensible connection between the "secession" stuff on the one hand and the general opposition to Obama from the GOP and conservatives on the other...

Now for the main point...

Explain to me how it is any less childish for the national politicians to WITHHOLD the rail-line from the southeast than it is for the southern politicians to criticize the national politicians. "Oh, you are criticizing Obama's policies? Well then, no rail line for you!" Sounds like you have to support the party in power or else you don't receive the services of the government. Now how far away is oppressive dictatorship again?
1

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 17, 2009
Votes: -2
Xon: ...
And, lest I be misunderstood by those who don't know me or who have never read or heard any actual principled arguments for smaller government before, I was anti-Bush on all this stuff, too. Our country has been "drifting" towards something-very-much-like-socialism (since if I just use the word "socialism" by itself then all the progressives will suddenly become dictionary pharisees) for a LONG time. The most recent regime is usually the worst, as it is generally a steady trajectory. So, W was the worst so far in many ways. He spent more, ran up the budget more, interfered in stupid stuff more, etc. But now Obama has come along, and as his own bragging speeches make clear, he is proud to be outdoing W in all facets. But saying that hardly makes me, or any other small government types, a fan of Bush. Just the opposite, in fact.
2

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 17, 2009
Votes: +0
Xon: ...
And, finally, honestly not trying to hijack or over-contribute, but one more thing. As your friend this recent turn you've shown towards jumping up and down on who the real majority is has been rather chilling to me. You guys aren't the majoirty, you guys aren't the majority, nah nah nah nah! Well, so what? What does that have to do with anything, unless you are simply trying to refute "moral majority" type rhetoric from particular people on the right? As all progressives know and like to frequently remind those around them, great heroes have arisen from movements that stood against the majority opinion and that fought for goals that were out-of-sync with what people wanted at that time. It is fine to criticize the arguments that disgruntled conservatives, libertarians, tax-protesters, etc., make, but it is completely unbecoming and more than a little frightening to hear someone who supports the current reigning party keep rubbing in it in the non-reigners' faces that they are out of majority. That they don't have the power. What is the conclusion of that sort of rhetoric? Again, as many progressives rightly told the neo-cons during W's reign, you always have to be careful of becoming what you hate (i.e., terrorists, deniers of freedom, etc.). But the same wisdom applies to your side, as well. Don't become the sort of person for whom all that matters is "who has more popular support right now?" and "what can we do because we have the power?" There are higher questions than these, and regimes that only focus on these kinds of questions do indeed resemble the sorts of "totalitarians" that you think the small-government types are so paranoid for being worried about. It is not a large step from "you are not in the majority, so get over it that we are passing laws you don't like" to "you not in the majority, so who cares what you think anyway?" to "you are not in the majority, so if you get in the way of what we want, you can be destroyed."

You don't think everyone in Germany just woke up one day and decided to support oppression and brutality, do you? These things aren't done by "monsters." We are not special. It CAN happen here.
3

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 17, 2009
Votes: +0
FARfetched: ...
Xon, I think you're missing the point completely.

How often does one extend their hand to a mad dog to help them out of a problem? How many times does one get bitten before giving up and leaving the beast to its fate? That's exactly the situation we're looking at here: Republicans apparently have nothing to offer but cheap shots and grandstanding. They gladly turn down offered help in order to score political points (but with whom?).

The scary thing is, I wrote about this very situation in October 2007, although the context was the political climate after the November 2012 elections. I'm serializing a peak-oil novel called FAR Future on my blog — starting here — and it's kind of weird seeing stuff I wrote about happening already.

Personally, I think the high-speed rail project, as laid out at the White House site, is a good start. I think KY & TN are getting seriously short-changed, for whatever reason, and not connecting Atlanta to Louisville (and on to Chicago) leaves a pretty big gap in the service. I suspect they proposed a pretty decent portion of it for GA simply because there have been plans for high-speed rail here for decades; they just had to dust 'em off and run with it.
4

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 17, 2009
Votes: +0
Dave Bearse: ...
There's been over $100M in federal funding available to Georgia to implement passenger rail service on the Macon Line for a decade, yet Georgia hasn't proceeded with the project because it won't chip in $50M in capital cost for Griffin commuter service and provide a $5M per year operating subsidy.

That said, there's no reason to believe Georgia will provide hundreds of millions in matching funds to build a multibillion dollar high speed lint that wouldn't carry all that many more people daily than slower speed service on the Macon Line and require tens of millions in annual operating subsidy. Then too there's the recent example of a General Assembly that doesn't contribute a dime to MARTA yet whose inaction is interfering with MARTA's budgeting of its revenue but had the time and interest to micromanage beverage comsumption on MARTA premises.
5

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 17, 2009
Votes: +1
mark.maisel: ...
I laughed out loud when I saw the comment on Daily Kos, Jonathon. While it is historically true that in politics, the loyal do better than the opposition, I suspect the rail funding will not be withheld for that reason. More likely, the opportunity to put it to use will be pissed away by behavior similar to that which has prevented the money Dave refers to being used for rail service. I like trains and would use them if price and reliability are comparable to that of airlines. Unlike airlines, I see no need for 10 trains per day to a popular destination, unless there is sufficient demand. I can fly, for instance, to New York City, at least that often out of our airport. If there were a train or two going that way, even if it took 20 hours, as opposed to the 2 hours of flight time, I'd be inclined to take it as rail is more comfortable and I could get some serious reading and resting done, arriving ready to go at my destination.

Per my stance of the past several years, I do not intend to hold my breath waiting for Georgia, or for that matter, most of the continental US to embrace any form of regional or national mass transit such as rail service. While the amount of money suggested by the Obama administration is not small, it is scarcely enough to get any service started. Heavy rail is very expensive, though much of the cost, right of ways and adjacent land, should already be done. I should still think a lot of expensive study, upgrading, and negotiation with freight companies operating the rails will eat much more than the several billion currently on offer. I'd love to see it happen, and for it be regularly used by our citizenry as means of getting from region to region.
6

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 20, 2009
Votes: +0
Cousin Pat from Georgia: ...
Creative destruction, JMac. If Georgians want to support a state government that acts this way, then they can sit in traffic in Atlanta all day if they want, listening to the talk radio that validates their actions. Let them complain about the time and effort it takes to drive from Atlanta to Jacksonville for the Georgia - Florida game. You don't want trains, you don't have to have trains, someone else will invest their money and get those trains and those jobs.

Just make sure it stays more creative than destructive, if you know what I'm sayin'. What may work when arguing about trains may not work when arguing about levees...
7

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 20, 2009
Votes: +0
Xon: ...
"someone else will invest their money and get those trains and those jobs."

Invest whose money? Who with the what now?
8

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 21, 2009
Votes: +0
Cousin Pat from Georgia: ...
Xon - please see the Dave Bearse comment. The "matching funds" money.
9

report abuse
vote down
vote up
April 22, 2009
Votes: +0

Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.

busy
 Copyright © 2008 Tondee's Tavern, LLC. All Rights Reserved.