274. Inattention to blogs; inattention to government

A month and a week have already passed in the new year - when did that happen and where did it go? Anyone who has been paying attention here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 is aware I've been lax and inattentive in posting entries and adding new photos. Sooner or later I'll get caught up. But right now, it looks like later is the more likely timeframe for doing so.

I have been a little too busy for my own comfort. I haven't made but one or two trips out into our Commonwealth or over into southern Indiana, which is one short mile away from my home. Even trips to Frankfort, which are typically frequent, have been few, one for a funeral, the other for a party, both of which I've written of in the last few weeks. I know I'll be back up there a few more times in the next few weeks, including on the 1st of March for a meeting of the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee, where I will be proposing to the membership some changes in our State Party By-Laws as they affect Fayette and Jefferson counties. Other By-Law changes will be proposed by the By-Laws Committee affecting the other 118 counties in the Commonwealth. All of these changes have to do with the selection process for Democratic nominees in Special Elections. We've had several in the last few months and at least one more is on the horizon as State Representative Brandon Smith, the recent Republican victor in the 30th Senate race, will be vacating his House seat for a move to the other end of the Capital. The State Committee has been notified of these proposals, and again, they will be discussed at the March 1 meeting.

The night before that meeting, on Leap Year Day, will be the Wendell H. Ford Dinner of the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Party, an annual fundraiser for the local Party. The crowd is expected to be addressed by both our Congressman John Yarmuth as well as our Governor Steve Beshear. The messages will probably be a mixed bag - things seem to be improving in the Congress, while back in Kentucky, a downward slide budget-wise is the center of attention, especially in the General Assembly. As I've said in previous entries, until and unless we have across the board tax increases, we will be having fiscal problems for years to come.

Another political event coming up much sooner, this coming Wednesday night, will be an address by the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro to the Metro Democratic Club - a repeat and perhaps update to the State of the City address he gave earlier this month. Several things have changed since the initial address, not the least of which is the fiscal standing of our local government. That meeting will be held at 6:30 Wednesday at the UAW Hall on Fern Valley Road in Okolona. Last Thursday night, Metro Council President Jim King addressed the All Wool and a Yard Wide Democratic Club on the Council's Budget Committee discussions, with the Council asking pointed questions about the $9,000,000.00 shortfall the administration has announced the Metro is facing. Councilman King is a successful CPA and banker and fortunately has greater insight into these matters than most of his colleagues and having him there to ask the hard questions and helping to find the honest and needed answers is a good thing.

As you can see, budget shortfalls are the common denominator tying together all levels of government. These shortfalls can be directly attributable to legislators on both sides of the aisle at all levels of governing during the last thirty years who have fallen prey to putting their respective reelections ahead of fiscal responsiblity. Grover Norquist and his minions are winning - they are shrinking the government down to nothing. They are true anarchists. Yet legislators continue to give tax breaks to any number of entities, and many politicians continue to call for tax cuts. We are well past the time when it should have ended - we are now in the transition period from a caring and succesful government of laws, not individuals, to one which is failing at every level - a failing Republic, failing states, and failing local governments. If people want new roads and highways, they are forced to have tolls. If people want better schools, they are forced to have bake sales and car washes. If people want anything, the responsibility has shifted to exactly where the right has wanted it all along - the individual. We have devolved into a government of individuals, where the common ties which bind us are overcome by individual greed, individual wants, and individual control. There is no connect between the ones among us and the many we once were. We are getting the government we wish to pay for and the the government we deserve for our selfish actions over time.

Some day - not soon - maybe twenty or thirty years from now, one of the New York Times Bestseller listed books will be The Rise and Fall of the American Republic. We have been writing the chapters for several decades - all that is left are the closing paragraphs. You need not wait to see the movie - if one of the things you demand in your elected officials is a pledge and delivery of No New Taxes, then you are one of the central characters of the story.