April Rant - Governance

I remember about a year and a half ago sitting in a meeting of some very cutting edge people that live in Hickory and Catawba County and having a discussion about how we go about changing the mindset of the people who live in the area. The discussion turned in the direction of Horse Race politics and how you go about making changes related to changing officials in elected office and how the same people hold their positions for lengthy periods of time and how those people hold no accountability because empirical evidence shows that no matter what they do or how we continue in an economic and social malaise in this area that these people will be reelected anyway, because they will always have someone else to blame and there are very few people who have the intestinal fortitude to hold their feet to the fire.

After listening to the people talk in circles about this subject, I had to interject that it isn't about the Horse Race, because what these people were saying was obvious and frankly it is time to move on from constantly bemoaning the obvious. It just isn't constructive to keep preaching to the choir. The message has to be taken to the people who are clueless as to the way our governance works in this area.

Evidence has proven that Mayors in Hickory stay in office for a generation. We have a Mayoral position that has a four year election cycle and in the last 52 years we have had 4 mayors and only one served a single 4 year term. Julian Whitener was in office from 1959 to 1977, George Murphy served the single term from 1977 to 1981, Bill McDonald was in office from 1981 to 2001, and Mayor Wright has been in office from 2001 to present. Compare that to the United States Presidency where there have been 10 office holders during that same subsequent time period.

What I pointed to that day was that the Horse Race is fine and dandy, but in the end it is about governance. We have people that get so entrenched in political ideology related to the Horse Race that they just walk away from the situation once the election is over only to come back when the subsequent terms are up to the wash and rinse repeat cycle. What about what goes on between the four year terms and the decisions that are made and the consequential implications of the decisions that have been made?

I am not only speaking about Hickory's Mayoral race. Too be fair, the same goes on in every local decision making race that is held from City Council to County Commission to State House and State Senate and that doesn't only go for Hickory. It also goes for all of the Metropolitan area of Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton. I don't believe in Trickle Down Economics and I don't believe in Trickle Down Governance. The most important decisions that are made that effect this area are made right here by our local officials either by action or inaction.

Elected officials will play it off and blame everyone else, but they are who we elect to hold office. They have no right to abrogate their authority to any part of the bureaucracy, whether that be government or quasi-government agencies. They are the people who hire the local City and County Managers and they empower all forms of decision making bodies. This is supposed to be done for the sake of public interests, but all too often we see it done for personal self interest and for their associates without taking into account the effects that it will have on the big picture. They have no right to cry about Raleigh and Washington, when the State and Federal Government sends them millions of dollars in grants and usually lets them decide how to spend such monies or they are allowed to request and apply for such grants of their choosing to be directed towards interests of their choosing.

The bottom line is that our local officials are responsible and accountable for the decisions that they make. But, it is the responsibility of the citizenry to keep up with what is going on in their local government and hold their elected officials accountable. This is not done by less than 10% of the people showing up for a local election. This is not done by not following the decision making process of local government officials. This is not done by not participating in the processes of governance. This is not done by only complaining when something directly effects you and walking away when it's your neighbors issue that has taken the stage. We are all supposed to be looking out for the welfare of the entire community. If we are only going to look out for our own interests, then why even have a City Charter?

To be successful we need to grow the pie. We need a local economy that is growing. In order to do that we have to be in this thing together, but it seems way too many people are out for themselves and their own short term interests. Mayor Wright has constantly stated that our local decision making body, "the Hickory City Council" is non-partisan. As I have stated in the past, nothing could be further from the truth. If someone is thinking in regular pop culture Democrat or Republican terms, then they are only fooling themselves with such a simple context. What we have in our area is the Downtown Development Association Party and the Northwest Hickory Party and everyone who does not conform to those interests is getting routed. I mean they are getting their A Double Esses handed to them. Those interests are not non-partisan. Check out the agendas of the Hickory City Council and see what they relate to. See what the issues on the agenda are directed towards. And maybe you just might get my point.

I constantly hear people from the Republican Party who espouse the notion of competition. That is one of the reasons why I can claim to be a real Republican and most of the people around here are one dimensional thinkers playing charades. All they can talk about is low taxes and small government. They want "My Taxes" to be low, but they also want goodies sprinkled all over them by the government. They don't care about other people's taxes or the common interest services that should be provided by a viable community that will help a community prosper.

You might say that I am not for competition, because I don't support Free Trade. I disagree, I don't support the Laissez Faire, "Free for All," Battle Royale trade policies that are currently going on that have scarred the American Industrial System. These policies are devastating the middle class and thus that is what is hurting our local area. The question is what are our local officials doing to help the working class people in the area? It seems that their policies are always geared towards the upper class. What about the tens of thousands of people in our area that have been adversely effected by what has been going on for the last decade?

I believe in fairness and each side playing by the same rules of justice. This does not mean that there will be equal outcomes and I do not believe in forced outcomes, but I do believe in equal opportunity, because I believe this allows the best ideas and the best entrepreneurs and the best leaders to rise to the top. It isn't all about investing capital and physical money into the middle class. It is about investing time, energy, and ideas into helping the interests of the majority of the people in our region, instead of focusing everything towards the same old stale ideas fostered by the closed circuit club that runs in the same circles and is not open to new ideas and the realization that we can't tweak around the edges to change the negative economic momentum of our area.

The people at the top of Hickory's Food Chain may like it here, because of their status. They may not want the area to change. They may not want to invite people here that have different ideas than their own, because they are afraid that it will change what they have deemed Hickory is supposed to be; but I guarantee that these people are anxious, because they see the economic writing on the wall. They know the economy isn't good and this isn't a normal downturn of the business cycle, but they are stuck in a paradox of wanting to control Hickory towards their own will by trying to firm their grip and steady their position, while at the same time they continue to see the local economy become more and more irrelevant in this 21st century world. They are in denial about the fact that what Hickory was is not going to come back and making a transition towards a new future is not some sort of fantasy, it is imperative for the viability of the community.

Maybe certain people don't care if the population implodes. Maybe certain people want a downsized Hickory. Who does this benefit? Do you want to participate in such a process? Do you understand the implications this will have on your personal finances and the quality of your life? Do you know what this will mean to your property value? Don't you want to know what the vision of our leaders is? Don't you care about the direction in which we are headed? Don't you want to be in the loop on this decision making? It doesn't worry you? You don't care what relevance this has to you and your family? Are you giving up? Is this some sort of long term slow suicide pact that I don't know about?

Put down the Chicken Wings dripping in Ranch, push back the Pabst Blue Ribbon, push the off button on the Remote to the Boob Tube, lower the lever to the foot stool of the La-Z-Boy, and start getting involved in your lives; because if you don't, then you aren't going to be able to afford all of those poor man luxuries. Our Forefathers busted their butts so that our lives could be easier and we are headed to the point where we are going to have to start over from scratch, all because people didn't care to play a role in their own lives and their own destiny. People may not like what I am saying or what I am doing. Well to that I say it is time for YOU to SAY SOMETHING and DO SOMETHING!!!