(s)election

Greg Ballard, [insert patriotic rah-rah bs here], just got elected mayor of Indianapolis. In addition, the people of Indianapolis chose to hand back the city-council to smug, good-ol-boy Republicans. Which is better, I have to guess, in the wisdom of the crowd, than smug, good-ol-boy Democrats.

It concerns me that people in this town are so shallow. We tried to analyze what gives this town such a bad "vibe." Empirically, it is this shallowness.

In Hollywood/LA, they make whole feature-length films about the shallowness. And to that I say, "Well, at least it's glamourous."

Here, the shallowness is different. From a very early age, it seems like everyone gets divided very quickly into their little pigeonholes: you're korean/black/white/white trash/of some ethnic decent--over there. you're catholic/protestant/jewish--you stay in that corner. colts fans--over there. army--yeah we got a spot for you here. get back: you support the navy--find another spot. Of course, this applies to Republicans/Democrats too.

This works out great for the do-nothings we keep hiring to run the joint. Whip everyone into a froth about Bart Peterson for raising taxes. He's a Democrat, so he can't be trusted with fiscal matters. Get in your hole and start cheering for the winning team!

To which I say: the dude dragged this city kicking and screaming into the 19th century. He finally had the balls to say the sewers haven't been updated in 100 years, we can't afford the luxury of 9 seperate governments running Indy, three police departments, and by the way, you can't discriminate against gay people and veterans in housing or employment. He got a nice new stadium built, the canal expanded, and put seed money with neighborhood development corporations to slowly bring back burnt-out downtown neighborhoods. But whoops, had to raise taxes. Too bad he used the state's antiquated and unequal methods for doing so.

So here come the Republicans to save us. They won't raise taxes (until they do). They won't put any money into the arts. They won't keep civilization going by protecting the homos from smiling discrimination. Oh happy day! I hope I get some trickle down monies from the republican-connected businessman's paradise/cultural gulag we're about to become. Again.

Because that's the long and short of it, isn't it? Government isn't about the people it tries to protect and give enough freedom and opportunity to live a decent life. It's about how much power you can wrest away from an opponent, how much money you can drain out of a tax base to make more money for your team, and think you are morally superior because you go to church every Sunday.

And as for allowing anyone near the government's money, the Republicans that run the state have an awesome ability for reading spreadsheets: the tax assessment the state proscribes is what brought down Peterson, and when Gov. Mitch Daniels was the Budget Director at the White House, he said the Iraq War would cost like, $2 billion, tops. Don't even get me started about how he walked away from the IPL workers retirement meltdown smelling like a rose.