Their local darling, Tony Larson, is here to tell ya they've come to take back government. So sorry Tony, the inmates are already running the asylum.
Local promoter Larson was recruited at the last minute by Sam Crawford when Sam's pals at the Building Industry Association, faced with backing Theresa Sygitowicz, realized the faster she'd run, the behinder she'd get. So it was off with her head!
It makes you wonder, what part of the Tea Party platform Larson intends to stand on. Will he campaign to end giveaways to a Whatcom county plutocracy that assumes a hereditary right to direct and profit from unregulated growth?
Or will he just be all-in on de-regulating the masters of our little universe, the folks who'll finance him, and help them vest more rights taxpayers will have to repurchase? Maybe there's a spot for him in Crawford's "consulting" business.
Do you really think he's come to throw the special interests out of the temple, and tell 'em to get their hand out of the public purse?
If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't!" (Tweedledee)
Jeeeeez, they're his backers! Maybe he means "we've come to take government backwards." No, the Tony Larson version of Tea Party wisdom is the same o' same o' locally; and nothing more than an unthinking repetition of the most ludicrous neo-liberal propaganda generally.
For instance, according to Tony, "Wall Street didn’t cause the financial collapse we experienced — government did."
Simple huh? You don't have to understand credit default swaps, securitization, regulatory capture; figure out who was doin' who between AIG, Goldman-Sachs, Lehman Brothers, the Fed and the Treasury; it's simple, any fool who looks at the thing could tell you, "guvmit done it!" Yep, any fool.
"Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense." (Mock Turtle)
The real culprits were, according to Larson, the "minorities" who obviously control government, out swat the bankers, and, demanding an end to redlining and such, made the banks loan 'em the money.
You get the picture: scads of black and brown folks in bandannas holding pistols to the heads of loan officers all over the country sayin', "Let me sign it sucker, I wanna go through foreclosure like the white folk."
But according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic, the biggest defaulters on mortgages are the rich, with about 14% of mortgages in excess of one million dollars in default. Whereas more modest housing's default rate is about 8%.
But don't confuse him with the facts. Tony'd rather take his tea with folks who believe the housing bubble and ensuing financial collapse was Barney Frank's fault; do-gooder policies he somehow imposed on a Republican Congress.
Tony Larson's message: why be outraged by the bailout of Wall Street tycoons. It weren't their fault. Taxpayers owed it to 'em cuz government's to blame. But that's not such a stretch, 'bout what you'd expect from a guy who blamed Bellingham for not bailing out his business.
Seems Tony Larson can talk the talk, but when government money's in reach, he walks the walk right over with his hand out; as was the case when some millions became available to upgrade Bellingham off Lakeway.
Remember when the whole house of cards was coming down for those free market masters of the universe, and the rest of the Park Avenue parasites? Somebody pointed out, "there are no libertarians in a financial crisis."
Big part of the Tea Party philosophy is laissez faire, just get government out of our lives.
But when "we the people" shunned a measure that would have benefited Tony's ball team using Joe Martin field, (though at the time we supported bond measures for other purposes, fire stations and schools) Larson sued to get local government to bailout his failing business.
Nonetheless, Larson tells the flock, "When we expect and ask our government to solve our problems, we are in trouble. So, be careful what you wish for."
`I quite agree with you,' said the Duchess; `and the moral of that is--"Be what you would seem to be"--or if you'd like it put more simply--"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."'
Tony explains, "Most don’t understand we are not a democracy. We are a Republic and are supposed to be directed by our Constitution, which limits the role of government and protects individuals against intrusive government power."
(Just an aside: the Constitution is also the basis for laws protecting individuals from "intrusive" individuals too. Yeah, really!)
And he's about half right on the democracy vs. republic thing. Ours is a representative government elected democratically rather than being based on heredity or wealth. Though it seems, these days, when it comes to political discussion, money does most the talkin' and most the money's inherited.
Hopefully he's conservative enough to understand that the powers not granted the federal government at the founding remained with the states, save for the natural rights we were said to be endowed with, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And as you would expect, our state too is governed by a constitution in which counties were created, all of which democratically elect representatives to send to the state capitol to pass our laws, and then follow 'em. And Whatcom county, as allowed by state law, adopted a charter by which its democratically elected representatives would govern.
The charter includes the requirement, upon entering office, to take an oath to support the Constitutions of the United States, the State of Washington and its laws as well as the ordinances of Whatcom County.
"What is the use of repeating all that stuff, if you don't explain it as you go on? It's by far the most confusing thing I ever heard!" (Mock Turtle)
Well, because when Tony talks about protecting individuals from "intrusive government power" that's code.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
Larson recently wrote, "Many people who own their property cannot do with it what they want without paying fees and gaining approval from government" obviously implying this is wrong, intrusive and an abuse of government power. Not something Tony Larson would support.
How can he square that with the oath he would take to uphold the laws of the state, including the Growth Management Act and the rulings by courts and quasi judicial bodies that interpret and enforce it? Or is he telling us he'll be another scoff-law like Crawford and company.
Boy, it does sound better, if you want to sucker voters, to shout 'guvmit's grabbin' yer property rights', than tellin' them they gotta build you a road or pave your parking lot.
Or how about government disapprovin' your wrecking the neighborhood or polluting drinking water? What the hell's with that?
Well, like most demagogues, Tony and his pals like to keep 'em dumb and angry. That way they'll happily screw themselves. In this case, the boys with lots of land to develop would rather have the taxpayers pay for the improvements that make 'em rich. Sure beats havin' to pay for 'em yourself.
And of course they don't want other folks, who want to keep things pretty much the way they are, gettin' in the way of their vesting lots of "rights" we will have to buy back to protect the county.
The real rub for the folks Tony's cozied up to came back in 1926 (the heyday of socialism!) when the U.S. Supreme Court told the landed gentry that zoning based on comprehensive planning was a proper exercise of a state’s power to regulate the use of private property in order to protect the health and safety, and general welfare of the community.
Just this June, the US Supreme Court, as conservative as we've seen in a long while, again observed that the State's laws of property and nuisance, which place restrictions on land ownership, "inhere in the title itself."
And Justice Scalia, of all people, wrote for the majority, "The takings clause (of the fifth amendment) only protects property rights as they are established under state law, not as they might have been established or ought to have been established."
So, when the property rightswingers claim the county can pass no regulation or ordinance without compensation to those unduly burdened, keep in mind what "unduly" means; that title came with an important proviso, handle with care. It makes all the puffing and swaggering about "land grabs" seem quite the pose. But to what end?
"Tut, tut, child! Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it." (the Duchess)
It seems Larson is signaling his Tea Party philosophy is more like Dick Armey, Tom DeLay and that crowd's. There are a lot of folks in politics who want to be at the table when the cake is cut. Funny how self promoters gravitate to the game. I suspect Larson will happily lead the less informed down the garden path to get his feet under the table.
I expect he believes, if he even thinks about it, as the cost of government keeps rising, the quality of life keeps slipping, the rich get richer and the rest of us keep trying to get by, the Tea Party will lap up the rhetoric and keep missing the reality: that the continued sprawl and vesting of building rights will lead to ever increasing needs for government services, infrastructure and rehabilitation of the environment.
And that means more, not less, taxes on you and me; not the latecomers or the folks who profit from development.
These costs, like restoring Lake Whatcom, "we the people" will pay, while the landowners who wrecked the lake will expect us to pay them to stop. At the same time the beneficiaries of this public largess will blame it all on guvmit'.
Pretty much the same Tony Larson take as on the financial bailout: "Wall Street didn’t cause the financial collapse we experienced — government did."
"And the moral of that is -- The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours." (the Duchess)
These kind a guys sure do make you wonder. It would indeed be a wonderland if we could find a little less facile representative, one a little more frank about the economy and government spending. Maybe someone who's willing to shift the burden of taxation off regular, working folks and onto the buggers making the big bucks on development.
And you do remember Alice? "It would be so nice if something made sense for a change."
Thanks to Lewis Carroll for wisdom and inspiration (editor)
