I\u2019ve probably had enough of transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
Look, I get<\/em> it.\u00a0 I know<\/em> the liberals want to be in charge of the county.\u00a0 I know<\/em> they won\u2019t rest until it\u2019s them actually sitting in those seats, them making those marginal calls from imperfect information, and their decisions revealed in 20\/20 hindsight to have been insufficiently prescient.\u00a0 I know<\/em> they feel a deep need to micro-manage and second guess every decision the commissioners might consider making.\u00a0 I get<\/em> the subtext of their vigilance \u2013 that the current commissioners are incompetent and that only a liberal, green, populist, anti-growth, country-in-county approach will do for us.\u00a0 We all know<\/em> these agendas won\u2019t ever directly sway the greater demographic of unwashed Republican voters in Elbert County.\u00a0 And I understand<\/em> the activists will find a way by any means possible to insert themselves into our governance because they believe without question in their agendas, and their entire world view hangs in the balance of these matters.<\/p>\n The cast of characters on the BOCC morning show last week included Richard Miller, Robert Rowland, Jill Duvall, Rick Blotter, Belinda Seville, plus two commissioners.\u00a0 They were all too comfortable in the process to not be typical.<\/p>\n Apparently when the commissioners serve the planner\/liberal\/green agenda, everyone is convivial, full of mutual admiration, even a bit smug about how correct things are.\u00a0 But oh, when the agenda is in doubt, or when the commissioners might actually make a move counter to the agenda, it\u2019s Katy bar the door and we\u2019d better book the Exhibit Hall at the fairgrounds because it\u2019s time for a demonstration.<\/p>\n What do you call this sort of government?\u00a0 Representative democracy doesn\u2019t quite fit because the cast of characters constantly nipping at the heels of the commissioners don\u2019t represent any majorities.\u00a0 They\u2019re all about their various agendas.\u00a0 And republican statesmanship doesn\u2019t fit either because the leadership panders to whomever shows up, and it\u2019s the planner\/liberal\/greens who always occupy that field.\u00a0\u00a0 This is government by the threat of force upon the governors, something way beyond the consent of the governed.<\/p>\n The left have taken elements from the Constitution designed to protect and enforce the people’s consent to be governed, and turned those protections into a license to issue threats, extort money from the public treasury, and force their minority agendas upon the majority.\u00a0 The constitutional guarantee of Freedom of Speech was not intended as a cover for subversion, threats, and bad faith.<\/p>\n Despite what most of these participants and would-be \u201cwe-the-people\u201d leaders will tell you, the people don’t really enter into the process of county governance.\u00a0 The people are unintended beneficiaries who bring two interests relevant to the process:\u00a0 1) The degree to which their property can be made to serve one of the planner\/liberal\/green agendas, and 2) The degree to which they can be mined for tax revenue.<\/p>\n That makes us like the wild boar at a luau — dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 The transparency and accountability imposed upon the BOCC have done little to improve the people\u2019s prospects under county governance.\u00a0 Seeing how we get stuffed into these sausages of government each week does not improve the taste when it’s still us on the plate.<\/p>\n Protecting the people’s interests under county governance — that is, the interests of the majority of people who don’t have time to hang out at BOCC morning shows and zoner meetings — has yet to be addressed in this election cycle.<\/p>\n