On Virginia News Source today, Mike Barrett launches an attack on the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance (VBTA). First, he never gets the name of the group right. Second, gutsy to take them on on their quasi-official website. (The VBTA itself has a website at http://www.vbtaxpayer.com/ As of this evening, it hasn't been updated in over two months.)
Mike ends with the statement, "if that means turning back the clock 100 years to one room school houses, dirt roads, and one officer of the law on a horse, that's fine with them." Actually, I think Mike gives them too much credit:
1. "one room school houses" - Libertarians would abolish public schools.
2. "dirt roads" - VBTA Transportation Chairman Reid Greenmun would demand a referendum on the dirt road package. Greenmun would claim the selected projects were about opening up new farmland, not equestrian congestion relief. Finally, he would state the Mule and Pony Organization (MPO) was hijacked by special interests.
3. "one officer of the law on a horse" - the only places the Virginia Beach Police Department (VBPD) uses mounted officers are at the Oceanfront and Town Center. The VBTA demonizes the former, and derides the latter as the "Town Center Food Court." Therefore, they'd oppose "law on a horse".
That said, I believe the VBTA wouldn't turn back the clock that far. As one of my axioms goes, what they advocate might make sense had Virginia Beach taken a sharp right a generation ago. In 21st Century Virginia Beach, they're fish out of water.
That's the key difference between them and I: the VBTA looks backward 20 years, while my agenda looks forward 30 years.
2 comments:
The VBTA's website is about as up to date as they are.
Good for Mike Barrett, although why he would want to give VNS more hits I'll never know.
Something I've learned with this blog: if you attack the Deaniacs, they have no idea how to respond.
Virginia Beach's status quoers (I'm certainly not one!) have long decided to simply ignore the Deaniacs. Given that treatment, they've never had to try to defend their extremist positions.
When Mike Barrett or I attack, they're clueless as how to respond.
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