Whenever sensible solutions to our socioeconomic problems are offered by the political left, the other side often fails to engage with their substance. Instead, such reforms are dismissed as wishful thinking or even worse, treated with paternalistic condescension — the right’s routine of pointing down and lecturing others on civics.
We saw this in the latest annual State of the County address. Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp and state Sen. Bo Watson of North Chattanooga, both Republicans, justified state overreach from the GOP supermajority in Nashville, and regressive conservative economic policy more broadly, as the only reasonable way of doing things — just how things are.
“In the Nashville state capitol, our focus remains on being fiscally conservative,” Watson said at the event. “Our budgeting is conservative. We use and spend our infrastructure and education dollars efficiently and effectively.” (Conveniently, a clear definition of these buzzwords, and of who exactly these stated ideals are serving, was never offered.)
“We are emulating the state of Tennessee in these efforts,” Wamp said, echoing Watson’s unimaginative and misleading assertion that county government is a “subdivision” of the state.