How Do You Spell Hypocrite?
We watched, with dismay, the whole country going mad in the aftermath of 9/11. Now, we thought, we go and hold those actually responsible accountable. We watched, with dismay, the whole country going mad in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Now, we thought, we go and hold the bankers, the mortgage brokers, those who bought houses they could not afford, even those responsible in Congress, accountable.
Nope.
Both Democrats and Republicans shook their fists to start the war in Iraq, based on false pretenses, while further eroding our freedoms and constitutional rights.
It was the Republicans who pulled the move of “well… there will be moral hazard, but if we don’t bail out the banks…” in 2008. Then again, Pelosi was right there trying to ram TARP down everyone’s collective throats (later, feigning outrage at the lack of transparency of it). Then, more surprised Picachu faces were made when it turned out that TARP had some not-so-pleasant side effects.
Hypocrites, the whole lot of them.
But, that’s ancient history, in today’s political arena. We watched our country do all the wrong things, wondering if there are any good women and men of consciousness left in the political ranks. We hoped that, maybe, some new blood will come on the scene and start doing the right things for the right reasons, most of the time.
So the dawn of the age of the modern day progressives was being watched, with somewhat morbid curiosity by those of us, labeled as classical liberals (and classical conservatives – once you get to know one, gasp, it turns out they are actual human beings). In the beginning, there was hope. Maybe, just maybe we’d finally talk about universal healthcare, actually functional public transit, desperately needed improvements in public education. You know, things that benefit most people, most of the time.
Nope.
As we live in Colorado, we will talk about Colorado. Progressives wasted no time in showing their hypocrisy, just the same. While wearing garb from a culture in a region a lot of them have never even been to, they have all but forgotten the near annihilation of the native tribes right here, in Colorado, as well as just about every other state. And, once in a while, you hear some mumbling about “environmental justice.”
As someone who grew up a short distance away from Chernobyl (and then moved to Colorado, at the age of fourteen), it is fascinating to see the progressives talk about environmental justice in Colorado. While licking the boots of any and just about all developers that come before the increasingly “progressive” city councils in the state. It is as if the councils allow the developers to build whatever they want, somehow, the air and noise pollution will magically seize to exist. The air and noise pollution that hurts all of us. Air pollution constantly being made worse due to poor planning by the cities and the state. Frankly, the whole “planning” thing is a cruel joke, but that’s a topic for another day.
The mental gymnastics are truly mind boggling. Progressive city council members will drone on about social justice and communities of color being disproportionately affected by pollution, while leaving out that they are potentially allowing the developers, under the guise of “property rights”, to collect profit from ruining, err, developing on the land that was potentially flat out stolen from the native tribes that used to, and still do, call Colorado home. While exposing those who will be stuffed in to those developments to more noise and air pollution.
Report finds Colorado was built on $1.7 trillion of land expropriated from tribal nations.
Expropriated. Now there is an interesting way of saying taken through legal shenanigans, and when some would not fall for the said shenanigans, taken by force. Even though I’ve received most of my Western history education from Westerns (for those prone to fits of outrage, that was a joke), I am pretty sure that if I showed up these days in Rooney Valley and drove some stakes in to the ground claiming some plots of land, it would not be the Ute Tribe coming after me, but a flock of lawyers.
The same lawyers, who frequently parade in front of the JeffCo Commissioners and local city councils, mouthing off about property rights. The said city councils then go on lecturing the rest of us, who were lucky enough to still be able to buy a house, before that became nearly impossible for an average family, about how the exorbitant rents and metro district fees (enabled by the said city councils) will ensure, ahem, affordability.
The city councils talk about equity, and environmental justice. And then turn around and block the city council member who has been asking for a study session on the Ethyl Oxide impact on the community from the emissions from Terumo BCT in Lakewood. The same city councils that are tripping over themselves (along with the city planning departments and commissions) to allow a build out of thousands of rental units upon a site that was declared a super fund. So much for the “environmental justice.”
And while Jefferson County commissioners and the planning staff (along with Morrison and Lakewood equivalents) have allowed the developers to deface the natural beauty of the “Gateway to the Rockies” (while allowing more residences in the higher fire danger areas), not a peep was uttered about honoring the centuries long heritage of the native tribes who used to roam this land and might have more than a hypothetical claim to the “property rights” that get brought up so frequently.
(A view from the Green Mountain in to the Rooney Valley)
After all, one of the components of what it is to be a politician is to be a hypocrite. It is to be someone who drools at the sight of political campaign contributions (otherwise known as a bribe in many cultures around the world) and then, uses the “right words” to garner political points while doing anything, but solving the hard problems at hand. Then, collect more political campaign contributions. The circle of political life. So, while the political moniker has changed, the spelling has stayed the same. Hypocritical poseurs, the whole lot of them.