A Republic, If You Can Keep It

So, this is where you end up when you wake up on a Saturday morning at 6:45.

In front of the tv watching a Dharma and Greg mini-marathon waiting for the President's Cup to come on. And eating banana pancakes.

I ended up reading the Dallas Observer that I picked up during lunch yesterday. It's the local version of the Austin Chronicle - which is to say that it is full of typical liberal crapola. But, it's usually well written and occasionally humorous.

A headline on the front promised an article titled: "There's a Real Problem with White People Going Wild at Council Meetings". I thought it may have something to do with the homeless shelter being built in downtown Dallas and that's what led me to get the paper in the first place. Instead, the article was the author's opportunity to gripe about what other people he doesn't like are doing with their own money on their own time based on something he used to do himself.

Preston Hollow, an exceptionally wealthy section of Dallas where citizen George W. Bush used to live before entering public housing in Austin and D.C., wants to to create a Public Improvement District around the confines of their secluded neighborhood. The PID allows neighborhoods to use the self-generated and self-contained tax to do, well, whatever they want to do with it. In this case, the money would allow Preston Hollow to hire off-duty police officers to provide additional security for its citizens.

Instead of questioning the legitimate public policy concerns of this arrangement (eg. the city provides the cars, gas, and maintenance; the city holds the liability for any insurance or legal claims against it; increased security for one small city section may unintentionally decrease security in all other parts), the author attacks the individuals for their supposed incivility at the city council meetings to consider and approve the PID.

The author lowered himself to guessing that the elitist isolationists were unruly due to "their Ritalin running low", they lacked "experience in the the ways of democratic governance,

Aside - Neither the U.S. nor the Texas Constitutions guarantee democratic governance, by the way. Little experiment: go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/toc.html and do separate word searches for "democratic" and then "republican". Do the same at http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html. You might be surprised which form of government we really have.

(okay, I'm back) or were just really trying to safeguard their merlot supply.

When all else fails, make fun of your opponent and play the class card. Works every time.

But what really got me going was when the author admitted to the perks he enjoyed when he lived within an area with its own off-duty-cop-for-hire. Yeah, that's right - Do as I say, not as I do. Once, he got out of a speeding ticket because it was his neighborhood after-hours friend who pulled him over.

But the magic died after the nouveau riche proposed to create a PID. More class warfare - "Then the tea party would have a full-time military wing." A little dramatic, aren't we?

Maybe all PIDS are not inherently in the best interest of the city. Maybe they're not all inherently evil. That's why we debate ideas and consequences and not label anybody who disagrees with us as revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government city block by city block.

Which may not be a bad thing - even Jefferson understood that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.