BRIDGES OF SOCIALISM

 

 

 

Rudy Takala
August 15, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Lost in the global fray surrounding the Minneapolis bridge collapse is a perspective more prominent to those of us who live in Minnesota, and who have the pleasure of witnessing firsthand the politics of Congressman Keith Ellison’s world; the world that condemned a bridge to destruction, that condemned an as-yet unknown number of people to death.

Much has been made of the fact that Ellison, who represents Minneapolis, is the first Muslim to enter the U.S. House. That concern is overshadowed by the fact that, as of yet, he hasn’t harmed anyone on account of his religion. The state legislature, of which he was once a part, has.

Last year, the legislature ignored precedent by approving a local option sales tax increase on one county, without a local referendum, to fund a $776 million stadium for the state’s baseball team. “At the same time,” the Taxpayer’s League of Minnesota reported, “Twins executives Jim and Robert Pohlad” were “sponsoring a campaign to increase state income taxes by $2 billion more per year!”

Since the baseball team is receiving a stadium, the football team is demanding one as well. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf, just to make it clear that he still wants one, said, "That [the collapse] does not exclude the fact that… the Metrodome is… one of the oldest facilities in the league, and we want to make sure that we have a facility that meets the standards of the 21st century."

Meanwhile, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer recently noted that, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, bridge maintenance funds decreased from $12.5 billion in 2004 to $12.4 billion in 2006.

The government has about three functions for which it is responsible, one of which is the maintenance of infrastructure. Whatever the government does beyond protecting the citizenry is extracurricular, and done to ensure that elected officials continue being reelected.

With that in mind, at the same time it found money for a billion dollar stadium, Minnesota’s legislature found $325,000 to fund “Let’s Go Fishing,” which provides fishing trips for seniors, another $9 million for a polar bear exhibit, and $45,000 for a series of workshops for women on hunting, fishing and other activities, including “dutch oven cooking” and “food dehydrating.” The list, of course, goes on.

As the I-35 bridge deteriorated, the legislature was too busy funding how-to-fish training camps to notice.

Ayn Rand undoubtedly saw people dying as needlessly and as stupidly growing up in Russia. When she wrote Atlas Shrugged in 1957, she fictionalized a future that has continued to play out long past her time.

When government directives were passed for the “general welfare to protect the people's security, to achieve full equality and total stability,” industry was nationalized. Consequently, labor quality declined and infrastructure deteriorated; when a train became stranded in a mountain tunnel and union labor lacked the competency to resolve the situation, another misrouted train caused a collision, and the tunnel came crashing down upon them.

Rand wrote that the victims included a journalist who “wrote that it is proper and moral to use compulsion ‘for a good cause,’ who believed that he had the right to unleash physical force upon others… for the sake of whatever he chose to consider as his own idea of ‘a good cause.’”

A woman whose husband enforced government directives, who justified them by saying “it’s only the rich that they hurt.”

A housewife who “believed that she had the right to elect politicians, of whom she knew nothing, to control giant industries, of which she had no knowledge.”

And “a businessman who had acquired his business… with the help of a government loan, under the Equalization of Opportunity Bill.”

That was an ideal world. Unfortunately in the real one, the innocent die, while those with the blood on their hands escape.

The fault lies with members of both parties. Keith Ellison, socialist that he is, voted against the baseball stadium when he was a member of the Minnesota House. Tim Pawlenty, our Republican governor (and five-year hopeful for the vice-presidency), was happy to sign on to the subsidy.

Had our elected government officials had the interests of their constituents in mind, the tragedy would have been avoided. Had our state’s residents held their elected officials accountable and forced them to do what was responsible before they did what was frivolous, the tragedy would have been avoided. Instead, we did neither.

The blame for this is collective. Let it serve as a call to understand the failings of our government. If it doesn’t, people will continue to die.

Sources:

1, After bridge collapse, Viking owner Zygi Wilf still wants public stadium money
2, The taxpayer legue foundation and citizens against government waste
3, More bridge funds sought

© 2007 Rudy Takala - All Rights Reserved