Jacksonville Mayor & City Council District 1 Candidate Forum Recap

As promised here is my report on the District 1 Candidate Forum this past Thurday, February 17th put on by my neighborhood organization: The Alderman Park Civic Association. I've decided not to use any photos I took during the evening because of the poor quality of the photos and the lack of competency on the part of the operator. It was held off Lone Star Rd. in Alderman Park’s St. Andrews Episcopal Church. It was a fairly well attended event with a full slate of candidates shaking hands and kissing babies. The TU was even present. The first thing I noticed was the demographics of the crowd: mostly white, gray-haired, fairly balanced gender mix, probably retired and very, very conservative. The President of the Association is a Teaparty Republican who was a Rick Scott backer sporting one of those “Have You Prayed For A Liberal” bumper stickers on his car. It always strikes me that conservative’s bumpers always conveys a message to marginalize someone’s philosophy or belief system as it is never something to persuade. In any event, there is no doubt political ambitions are bubbling in that head as he is probably a good bet for a future District 1 City Council candidate once Clay Yarborough decides to take his homophobia and religious bigotry to the state house in some capacity.

I walked around and saw a couple of neighborhood folks I knew and exchanged pleasantries and took a few photos, which had the effect of everyone giving me a wary eye. There was no doubt that in all probability, with the exception of DINO’s Warren Lee and Ken Jefferson, I and poor old out manned Darryl Fleming, a candidate for Clay Yarborough’s City Council seat, were the only Democrats in the room. One of the Group 5 at large candidates for City Council, Robin Lumb, ambled over and introduced himself and left a card and then the forum was gaveled to order by the intrepid association President.

During the course of the evening three main themes emerged from the Republican cavalcade of tax cuttin’ cowboys as they burnished their conservative credentials for three minutes of allotted time to address the audience: (1) [Wait for it…] tax cuts!; (2) reducing the size of government [a shocker, I know]; and finally (3) union basing. That last one caught me off guard but looking at the slate of candidates I really should have expected it. Everyone seemed to be against the Craig Airfield extension and for some reason round-a-bouts.

The candidates for Mayor that did show up were Dino Warren Lee, and GOP’ers Mike Hogan, and Rick Mullaney. I guess Audrey Moran was reaching out to Democrats somewhere else in the city that evening along with Democrat Alvin Brown since we were at a minimum in the room. I was hoping Ms. Moran would be there so I could ask her about her UNF forum statement regarding taxes and fees but considering the crowd in attendance and their hostility to anything approaching the statement she made at UNF it might have been a wise decision to have a convenient schedule conflict as an alibi. Mike Hogan and Rick Mullaney looked like two of Pavlov’s dogs barking in unison on taxcuts [More! More!] and cutting government and making it smaller. I should follow them around with a little bell and ring it and watch them bark out Taxcuts! like one ofo Pavolov's subjects. But my liberal sensibilities tell me that’s cruel. Rick Mullaney touted his “34 point plan to […wait for it] shrink government and cut taxes. Mike Hogan was the one candidate who said no more round-a-bouts and got a smattering of applause. He followed that up with a pledge against excessive salaries as well (sorry city government workers – that means no raises for you). Warren Lee was against the Craig Airfield extension proposal but other than that who knows. He gave a bio and took a question about unions to which he replied “we need serious budget cuts.” DINO’s don’t do very well when they act Republican because why vote for one when you can vote for a real one.

The candidates for Jacksonville Sheriff were first with the staid and serious Sheriff Rutherford giving credit to Cowford’s homicide rate decline the past year to an aggresive district attorney’s office and JSO’s community outreach programs, which dropped us out of our number one ranking in the state for murder. When you can beat out Miami in that category you know there is some serious ammunition being expended into some bodies demonstrating one’s right to bear arms. He did fail to mention our fair city still leading the way in other felonies but no one was counting once the decline in violent deaths was noted. Once a discussion of guns was brought up all the following candidates no matter the office usually demonstrated their conservative credentials by extolling the virtues of the 2nd Amendment. Seems like the constitution is always sacred to them unless of course its the parts they don’t like (i.e. 14th Amendment). I wanted to ask DINO Sheriff candidate Ken Jefferson about his response to a question at an earlier forum for the Sheriff candidates reported by TU PolitiJax writer Abel Harding about his policy regarding armed suspects – “Kill’em, shoot’em, and bury’em. But I figured all that would do is gin up the concealed and carry crowd and I thought better of it.

Tax Collector and Property Appraiser candidates were all GOP candidates talking efficiency and making your visits to their offices like a retail operation. They wanted to make your visit(s) the quickest and most accessible to the services you need which of course sounds reasonable. But that’s like the roadside inn touting clean rooms instead of something more than basic services. Someone in the audience wanted to know why Mike Hogan’s name was on every Tax Collector sign and thought it was a frivolous expense and is the next office holder going to do the same. They stumbled over each other saying no.

Now we come to the Candidates for Dist. 1: Yarborough, Brock and Fleming. As the lone Democrat Mr. Fleming didn’t have much to offer other than his experience about being in the military and working in Pentagon procurement offices and heavily involved in the Boy Scouts. Clay Yarborough talked about his fiancé and said basically he’s going to keep doing the same old same old and voting no on everything that moves. I’ve seen more vision at the St. Augustine school for the blind than these stuffed shirts offered all night. This brings us to the one candidate who stood out for me because he offered an actual idea for the community: Republican candidate Lindsey Brock. He was very personable and cordial and spoke to the members of the audience and it was what he didn’t do that caught my attention more than anything else. He didn’t lead off with the standard Duval County GOP line about tax cuts and shrinking government. He talked about coming up with a program to link JU students with small businesses and show them how attractive a community Arlington can be with their vibrant ideas and talent. I almost stood up and shouted Here! Here!. I watched to see if anyone other than myself found that interesting – then nothing. He actually said he wanted to do something about bringing small businesses back to Arlington. I nearly fainted.

It was at this point I’d decided I couldn’t take anymore of this charade. District 2 and at large candidates were getting ready to speak and I just could not bear to hear more of the same. I saw Mr. Lindsey headed for the back of the room when he finished and before I knew it we were outside having a discussion about his ideas and I was able to give my views on what community means to me and my ideas about the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. He actually listened to what I had to say and engaged me about some of those ideas. Once I left I came home and immediately sent an email telling him he was the only candidate present that seemed reasonably grounded and open to what others had to say. I’ll have more to say about him later. Even though I’m diametrically opposed to almost every position he holds he does come across as someone you could actually work with.

I wanted to end the recap with some of the questions that were asked during the course of the evening. Someone stood up with a question for Rick Mullaney about unions. After giving a preamble that was straight off one of off Fox News’ Sean Hannity/Glenn Beck anti-union tirades about how they are responsible for choking off government revenue he wanted to know how he felt about unions. After nodding in agreement while that guy went on before his question and even mouthing “That’s right” when he remarked about unions being a revenue problem for the city he basically answered he was for sitting down and setting union leadership straight about where they stood with him and telling them his guidelines for dealing with them. Once they understood he would not budge an inch on any demand then he would be glad to tell them at a sit down to live with it. What a guy. I wanted to shout to him the next time his house caught on fire or he needed a cop, his call would be answered by an actual taxpaying union member(s). But the thick fog of ideology would have prevented any understanding of that concept.

Next someone asked about shutting down Terry Parker and making it a magnet school. One of the candidates, whom at present I can’t remember, said Terry Parker was a tradition in the community, then he went on to say was expressly not for closing it down. He asked the questioner to delay taking his family out of Arlington and work together with the community to improve the school.

And finally there was one question I wanted to cover. A lady, I think, stood up and asked why we had a storm runoff fee/tax and when we had an actual problem with storm runoff water she couldn’t get any service. I was stunned, though I shouldn’t have been, at the response she got. Several candidates took the microphone and said they had nothing to do with that current tax/fee. They explained to her what it actually was but went no further than that. Earlier in the evening when Kurt Kravitz, the candidate for Tax Collector spoke he mentioned his background was a successful business man with the Jacksonville Suns who made his employees do at least three different jobs and how he wanted to wanted the employees at the Tax Collector’s office do the same. Once they finished denying to the lady they had nothing to do with that tax I wanted to stand up and tell her this is an example of what we are in for. I wanted to tell her the reason she and others, who could be heard grumbling in agreement with her as she spoke, were not getting a response for that problem even though they were paying a fee was an example of shrinking government/city services what were already cut to the bone. On top of that here we are listening to some guy tell us he’s going to make his employees work more than one job as well. I wanted to say Kravitz was the perfect example of this mindset and this is not only what we have been going through for the past 12 years of dominant GOP rule but that we can expect more of the same in the future with these characters.

Though this sums of my recap I’ll have more to say later. I want to post the speech Democrat Daryl Fleming should have given and I will be commenting further about the race as it nears its conclusion for Mayor and District 1.

The Conservative Manifesto

I love cowboys. Actually, to be more precise I love the Hollywood caricature of the plains cowboy of the old West. You know the one. The rugged, wind burned individual bred from hardy white western European stock sandwiched between a 10 gallon hat and trail worn cowboy boots. He was the traveling loner with a body adorned and wrapped in leather chaps and matching leather vests. He rode atop a loyal Mustang (or Palomino – YMMV regarding the choice of horse) with his meager belongings tucked inside a saddle bag along with a blanket roll, tobacco bag & rolling papers, the requisite Colt .45 strapped to his leg and the Winchester slung inside a saddle sling as he wandered across the great open plains between the Mississippi valley and the Rocky mountains. Riding tall and erect he was accountable to no one but himself. But even more important, he was not one to rely on anyone but himself to get through life and take it in at a pace of his own choosing and without interference from anyone. Though he blends in with an ever changing seasonal environment he’s convinced himself the environment is a product of his own freewill. In other words it was his world and everything and everyone else just lived in it. For those grounded in the pop culture of the 1960’s and ‘70’s he was the Marlboro Man on steroids and he was armed.

The main problem in today’s body politic that defines our modern governments is this persistent Hollywood characterization of cowboys in the old west. And that problem is this: every Republican white male over the age of 45 actually see themselves as this Hollywood caricature. All one needs to do is listen to every speech ever given on the house and senate floor by the white right wing conservative male and you hear an oration peppered with veiled references to every characteristic I’ve described above. And to go even further, not only do they perceive themselves as this old west loner who just needs the community (i.e. today’s urban center or city, state or nation) to stay out of his way along with its pesky rules and regulations that go with it, he just doesn’t understand why everyone else doesn’t feel the same way. Welcome to the conservative Republican mindset.

To further complicate matters the Hollywood caricature described above has never existed in the pure form it envisioned. In real life cowboys, as defined by the actual historical name, does take on some of those Hollywood characteristics described above, but in the real three dimensional world of reality they were also a product of their environment. As people migrated west armed with nothing more than a few belongings, a plow and a Bible they competed to convert the open plains into proto urban centers of the future. Upon their arrival they also had with them their complicated notions of interpersonal relationships. Those interpersonal relationships were the basis of a loose social network couched in a sense of community. The real old west cowboy had to navigate that sense with a modicum of cooperation and the constraints it placed on his existence. Soon there followed a period of rapid expansion where these communities became more numerous, wide-spread and complex. As this expansion moved west the maverick characteristics that defined the old west cowboy became diluted. In a word the future was about community and the responsibilities that came with it if you decided to take advantage of some of the services a community or city offered.

This brings us to the modern conservative manifesto. The Hollywood cowboy caricature described above could almost act as a template overlay for the edict or declaration of principles that make up today’s white male conservative Republican. In reality these dogmatic annunciations of tenants and creeds in the real world is nothing more than a smoke screen that can take on a life of its own as it describes the raison d’etra of a conservative’s essence of being : one who is a devoted to family; one who believes in fiscal responsibility; small government; low, low, low taxes; one that believes in an unfettered, free, and unrestrained environment for private capital to flourish; a Christian devoted to faith and all the trappings of the religious community; and finally, one who devoutly believes in personal responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions. I think that about covers it. But let’s not kid ourselves. That rhetoric is for media and political consumption only.

Let’s strip away the rhetorical cloak and see what lies underneath where it sits hidden and only accessible by way of veiled dog whistle references. It’s the one principle that drives every fiber of their being in the rush to consturct a world where it’s the only thing that matters. It’s the main clause of their conservative manifesto: the community opt-out clause. This clause defines who they are. It’s the right to not invest in that community. It’s the right to take advantage of the services of that community without having to pay into it. It’s the right to let corporations and individuals of a certain tax bracket to come into your community and use its infrastructure without investing in it like tax exemption initiatives to attract private corporate benevolence. It’s the right to send money that corporations make out of the community never to me seen again in reinvestment. It’s the right to use the fire department, police department, city services and offices without investing in it. It’s the right to exist in that community and take advantage of what it offers while hardworking individuals of that community invest in it through property taxes, taxes on small businesses and volunteer services. That’s the one principle that makes them rage on in the Congressional forum for their so called conservative principles.

It’s the Hollywood cowboy who’s convinced himself the environment is a product of his freewill at the expense of everyone else while he navigates his way through it without even a by your leave. The essense of this principle is one they consider a natural right and brings a clarity only a conservative mind can appreciate.

Tea anyone?

A Message From Ike

Watching the Republican party redefine "right-wing ideology" on a daily basis is starting to make my head spin. Historians of this period will no doubt be confounded by this bizarre transformation of the 'Party of Lincoln' as it careens out of control. One of the examples they will point to is the difference between 'Goldwater conservatives' and today's teaparty driven elected GOP politicos as they try to curry favor with a voting base that seems to have utilized a brand of ideological white-out that any sane person using a rational approach to political analysis will not be familiar with. Digby over at Hullaballoo turns me on to a quote that I, like her, would have bet the house on that could only be attributed to Howard Dean. Not only is it astonishing who the author of the quote in question is, it should also serve as a warning to those who do not heed its message:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

And the dispenser of this infinite wisdom? One Dwight David Eisenhower. I'm just dumbfounded. Not only is the source of the quote astonishing it serves as a crystallization of the difference between yesterday's 'Goldwater conservative' and today 'Teaparty Republican.'

In the movie Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy peers out at a posse they can't shake and wonders, "Who ARE those guys?" Historians will be looking back at today's GOP and asking the same thing.

U.S. 4th Lowest Taxed Country In The World

I'm struck by how much the Internet and Sunday talk shows tell me how much conservatives and tea baggers hate our ruinous taxes and all that government intrusion. This is, of course, always followed by a hyper profession of love of country. Then my "progressives" and "liberals" twitter feeds seem to always be filled with constant messages about how "liberalism" is a psychological disorder and a philosophy for the insane followed by a requisite inference about their "hatred" of America. With all this in mind its really no surprise this is the usual menu items of emotional wringing one can pick up on randomly selected Beck, Limbaugh, or Savage program offerings available for public consumption for validation of these feelings.

What really strikes me though is the incongruity of it all when you take their thinking process to their logical conclusions. The emotional and often tearful declarations of love of America is usually a preamble followed by a list of "Americans" they can't stand with "liberals" always taking the first available slot. This is usually followed by certain "politicians" making the list with yet more "Americans" being singled out for disdain and venomous rejoinders. Then there are others who are told their lives are "lifestyle choices" and not really who they are and therefore will not be invited into the tent where "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" takes place. Then there are those who are professed non believers in spiritual matters who are always looked down upon as folks not worthy enough to receive votes for elected office. Again more "Americans" the conservatives and tea baggers can't stand. The list seems to go on and on...lawyers, certain judges, Hollywood in general, "immigrants" who need proof of citizenship while of course your average looking "wasp" does not and e.t.c.

Then when one finds out we are the 4th lowest taxed country in the world (only above Japan, Korea, and Mexico) this stuff really starts to materialize into head scratches. As it turns out the three top taxed countries in the world are also perennial finishers in the top five for standards of living. Go figure.

I find it strange that as an eighth grader I had to memorize Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for a lesson. At the time it just seemed like a frivolous waste of time reciting something that made no sense to me. Of course by the time of my college years I knew exactly what it meant: "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This tall lanky fellow who was a Republican was telling me in no uncertain words that Americans and their government were one and the same.

I'm like most Americans who occasionally grumble about paying taxes. But most of the time one of the most patriotic feelings I get during the year is tax time in April. I'm actually committing the act of contributing to the good and welfare of my country. Anyone can stand around a grill with hot dogs and fireworks going off in the back ground yelling USA! USA!. But tax time is an actual act without the hype and circumstance. Its stands as a reminder that not only is freedom not cheap, it requires civic responsibility to contribute to the public good and welfare to the national community at large. Its funny how libertarians and rock ribbed Republicans always want that community opt out clause in their ideology and usually from behind some gated community with a guard shack and rules about how your homes should not only look but reflect a certain standard of decorum that isn't desirable from some "Americans" they can't stand.

There is a favorite comic strip from not long ago about a little boy and his stuffed tiger named "Calvin & Hobbs." One day while building a tree house and staking a claim to being a "girl hating" club excluding them from membership, Hobbs the stuffed tiger, poses a question of introspection, "Why do we want to keep certain people out of our club?" Calvin answers back with a smugness and certainty that can only come from six year old boys, "Because, its not a real club if you can't keep someone out."

Whenever I hear Republicans tell me they hate or can't trust the government but they trust the American people I always think of that Calvin & Hobbs cartoon. Since its not a "real club if you can't keep someone out" I understand what they mean now. The people they are professing to trust are people in the "club" and not those Americans on that list of who they can't stand.

How about that. Out of the mouths of babes.