Crime levels are soaring. The roads would be a disgrace in Mogadishu. Drug overdoses are killing thousands. The tax base is fleeing the state in record numbers. But thank God, California has managed to address the one really critical issue plaguing the state; namely, can you own your own gas heater in Berkeley? Scott Ott goes where no man had gone before.
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10 replies on “Tempest in a Teacup”
Not sure I agree with Scott on this. Having lived in Boulder, Colorado, all I can say is that even local governments should be limited in what silly rules and laws they can make. Problem with a place like Boulder is the same problem that arises with places like Austin, and others. You are living there, and you are very happy. Then suddenly all the weirdo’s on the planet move to your town and make it almost impossible for you to live. That ain’t right.
It brings to mind that city in Oregon where all those followers of the Bagwan (That guru guy with all the Rolls Royce’s) moved to the town and took it over. The locals who had lived there for their entire lives were essentially driven off. Yah, he was later kicked out for tax evasion after one of his wives turned him in, but the town still suffers to this day because of what he did.
On my planet there’s a mandatory expiration date for all laws and government agencies except for those specifically and explicitly required by the constitution and the constitution itself. With one exception, private entities that accumulate government like power are classified as illegal government agencies and broken up. That way ESG rating companies go away and politicians are usually too busy trying to keep a law banning murder on the books to make problems for us. It’s a good planet, I really want to go home.
Admittedly I have a conflict here. I agree with the concept of pushing power down as far as possible and limiting larger governments. Be very careful what power you give to any government because the people you don’t like ARE going to win an election later and they’ll be in control of the power you authorized.
However, I have a very personal example. I live in Boca Raton (Bill Whittle knows where that is, the lovable Florida ex-pat). We are in one of the three counties (Palm Beach, the other two being Broward and Miami-Dade) who clung to mask mandates and lockdowns month after month even when the rest of our state had escaped the clutches of Covid control-freaks.
Month after month the continuing resolution for masks and social limitations were extended. I tried to reach my politicians at the city and county levels and literally could find no way to contact them. Their websites did not have email or phone numbers to use, the automated contact trees carefully avoided the ability to provide any critical feedback on Covid (though you could easily report a business for infractions!)
The only offices I could reach were my state congressman and my governor. I will freely admit I begged quite unseemly and with a complete lack of manliness to my Governor to intervene. When my county officials (whom I voted against) responded to Governor DeSantis by saying they should be allowed to govern their constituents the way they wanted because they’d been elected, I felt that yes, they’d been elected, but I’d elected my Governor too.
I know the cases aren’t perfect matches, but fanboi that I already was for DeSantis I whooped and hollered (and then yes, wept) when he overrode the counties who showed no signs whatsoever of relenting on mandates and lockdowns.
So I guess I’m torn.
Don’t be torn, the situation you describe is the system of checks and balances self-correction in operation. It took a while and meanwhile you suffered until the system kicked in but it worked as designed.
An American is a citizen several times over. A citizen of his municipality/county, of his state and of his nation. It’s good that all those entities do not agree with each other on every single issue.
In your case your state executive protected you from your local government. Sometimes the county government protects us from the state government. A county Sheriff is arguably the most powerful office in America but only so far as the county the office covers is concerned. Sometimes the state government protects us from the federal government. Sometimes the federal government protects us from the state government (I.E. were it not that the residents of the Soviet Socialist Repooblik of Kalifornia are also American citizens, guns would have been outlawed there decades ago.)
All we can do is try to do our best and hope we can weather political storms intact. Take heart, what’s happening in this country today is nothing new. The Republic has been under attack since the day it was founded. Since that day it has been the duty of all of us as individual Americans to defend it from enemies foreign and domestic.
Your complaint to the Governor’s Office had effect because there were many other voices added to yours saying the same thing you were.
Keep up the good work.
Can’t Wickerd vs Filburn (?sp.?) be eliminated by yet another Congressional act?
Just a quick note to Scott, big congrats to you and your wife and your offspring in the birth of the next generation of Ott’s. Psalm 127:4&5..Blessings to the whole clan.
Wow, I just looked up that Psalm, three married kids, eight grand kids, all nearby, suddenly there’s something wrong with my eyes.
Overfilling? Seriously, Scott. Have you been in Bolivia too long?
As you guys have said, local elections are important. Not only do they directly impact your home and family, but these offices are often stepping stones to higher offices. For those addicted to power, they are a gateway drug.
Well stated gents. the best government is local government even it that is mostly bad government.
Don’t like what your city council is doing. Go to the meetings and voice your opinion and then run against them or get someone who more likely matches your opinion to run against them.