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Involvement
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Interesting you should bring this subject up. Arnold Schwarzenegger is currently governor because of a grass-roots effort in California. The Democrats will try and sell you the myth that this was a vast right-wing conspiracy or a plot by the California Republican Party, but that is a flat lie. I was in on it, and I know exactly how it went, and who started it and how. A good summary can be found here. I was at one of the "support our troops" marches, and saw the petitions being circulated by moms and pops and their kids. A huge number of signatures were in place long before wossname Issa put some cash into it. And the petition would have succeeded without him. The California Republican Party dragged its feet almost the whole way, and while Bush made a big deal of kissing up to Arnold recently, he wouldn't touch the recall with a ten-foot pole.

The recall was the real voice of the people--and not just Republicans. And there are a lot of folks who don't want you to know that.

Short history of one person's successful involvement in one aspect of one political problem of one small community:

I would be interested to know exactly what you were promoting. I am currently pushing for a local bond that would do a seismic refit on our local hospital, one mandated by the state. In other words, I am pushing to get my own taxes raised. And not for the first time. I also helped vote a local tax hike for capital improvements on my schools, and a local freeway improvement. It ain't easy, either, since many of these require a two-thirds victory. The secret word here is "local." I dare say that you were doing something local as well.

I am not an anarchist. Nor do I think the ideal life is lived alone in a fortified militia compound with a basement full of ammunition and self-contained greenhouses. Or alone on Walden Pond for that matter.

What I believe is that there is a workable place on the spectrum of government between anarchy and the absolute rule of the District of Columbia over all our lives.

A rule of thumb: push for solutions that operate on as local a basis as possible. Education. Helping the poor. Cleaning up the environment. Jerry Pournelle once said it used to be more important who your mayor was than who the president of the U.S. was. Layers of government--important ones--are slowly collapsing into the Federal government. In a few decades state government may be only a ceremonial affair.

Wanting to get rid of the Department of Education does not mean one is against education, although that is how it is always painted. It means that the Federal government is not where such issues should be handled. Think about what we accomplished without it.

* * *

I didn't turn my back on the environmental movement because they went socialist, but because they would not admit that there is any other viewpoint. I think more than a few of us have seen how difficult it is to convince the modern environmentalist that industry, businesses, or technological interests have anything at all to contribute to the discussion. To many environmentalists, they are The Enemy. Period.

Sensible people are aware that there is a balance that needs to be maintained between operating a modern technological society, which is a positive and healthy thing for most human beings, and preventing environmental destruction in the process. Poverty kills more people than all the pollution combined. The modern environmental movement is no longer about filth. It's about being against technology. It's about not changing anything in the environment at all.

If all they are interested in is Smashing the Corporation, or BANANA ("Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody"--the successor to NIMBY) where can you go from there in a discussion?

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