The American Political Class: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Part 2

Late last year we did a post that was structured off of the title of a classic Clint Eastwood movie, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Since then, I have had other political situations pile up that reflect the Good of the American political class (few and far between), the Bad (plenty of examples, and the Ugly (far too many examples.) I will review them today, beginning with The Good and doing The Bad and The Ugly over the next two days.

The American Political Class: The Good, Early 2010

1) An article in the Briefing column of The Week magazine's April 30, 2010 issue caught my eye since it covered a politician that apparently is making some good moves and a positive difference in his city. The politician is Mayor Cory Booker and the city is Newark, New Jersey. At one time, Newark was a bustling and successful manufacturing center for a variety of industries. Unfortunately,

• The population, which was once about 450,000, has shrunk to 280,000 as the city's middle class and industries moved to the suburbs, much of which was driven by the 1967 riots.
• In 1975, Harper's magazine called Newark America's "worst city."
• When Mayor Booker took office in 2007, the city had one supermarket and one movie theater to serve the 280,000 residents.
• The previous mayor had been convicted of corruption and was sent to jail.
• The new sports arena that opened in Newark and which is the home of the NHL's Devils and the temporary home of the NBA's Nets, has failed to generate the economic development and urban revitalization that had been expected around the arena.

Given this backdrop, what has the Mayor accomplished in three years? According to the article:

• He's raised more than $100 million from private entities including music and Hollywood stars to fund city programs.
• He received money from the Gates Foundation to fund charter schools.
• He has raised millions in private donations to expand 20 city parks.
• He has struck deals with area businesses to hire more Newark workers.
• He has fired dozens of city employees that were in non-productive patronage jobs.
• He has reduced the homicide rate by 28%, the number of shootings by 46%, and the overall crime rate by 21%. In March, Newark got through its first month without a murder since 1966.
• A new high rise luxury apartment building is being constructed, the first in almost 50 years.
• Marriott is planning the first new city hotel in 38 years.
• Professionals are moving back into the city because of the low real estate rates and convenience to NYC.

My goodness, can any other politician in the country claim such a success rate in under three years on the job? Can any politician claim to have been successful with so little to work with (i.e. dwindling population, dwindling tax base, dwindling business community, etc.)? I doubt it. We've seen and blogged about how Washington politicians worry about the sound volume of television commericals, whether or not erectile dysfunction products should be advertised on TV, whether or not the package and pricing policies of a tiny airline are fair, etc. Good luck to Mayor Booker, thank you for restoring a little faith that a politician is capable of making a positive difference in people's lives without taxing them to death or insulting them with trivial priorities.

2) The second example of The Good comes from an article in the March 7, 2010 issue of Parade magazine. The article was titled "Compassion Counts More Than Ever" and was written by Michael Berland. The article reported on the results of a poll of Americans, Americans that are living through one of the greatest economic and employment downturns of all times, and found the following results:

• 67% bought charity raffle tickets to support a cause.
• 58% purchased something unnecessary to support a cause.
• 34% sent a check to a charity after hearing or seeing a touching news story.
• 87% supported a cause financially.
• in 2009, survey respondents gave more than $400 on average to the single cause they care about most.
• 98% of respondents have been involved in at least one charitable activity to make a difference and 91% have done it in the past 18 months including 37% who delivered food to the hungry, 30% who helped organize a fund raising event, 32% who participated at a cleanup of a public area, 24% who volunteered at a soup kitchen, 21% who participated in an athletic event to raise funds, and 19% who mentored a student.

All of this was accomplished when most Americans were confronting some sort of financial crisis over the past few years. This type of behavior reinforces my view that America is still a great country with great people that are ill served by bad politicians running an ineffective and inefficient government. How much more could Americans do if they were allowed to keep a greater portion of their wealth through reduced taxes? How much more could Americans do if the political class and various government entities (see previous post on SEC employees enjoying porn on the job while the economy crashed) had not been asleep at the switch and allowed the economy to crash and the unemployment rate to skyrocket? This type of behavior, both the good of individual Americans and the incompetence of most of the political class, was the partial inspiration for my book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government."

3) The last part of The Good will be mentioned briefly here and then after some research, I will come back with a more detailed post. It has come to my attention that the citizens of Colorado Springs, Colorado are embarking on a grand experiment of government downsizing. rather than continually raise the tax burden on citizens and continually expand government payrolls and functions (which many times are not done well or not done at all), the citizens and the local government are looking for innovative ways to reduce the size of government, return tax dollars to the citizens, and make up the difference by deploying volunteer programs, generating funding through creative advertising opportunities, and other such novel approaches. Some examples include:

• Taxi drivers are recruited to be an extra set of eyes for the police.
• Residents can adopt a street light for a $100 a year.
• Volunteers now empty garbage cans at the city's 128 parks.
• Four city community centers will now be run by a church.
• A dunk tank helped raise funds for city needs.
• Negotiations are underway with big box stores that would offer a discount on a rider mower if the buyer volunteered to cut grass on city property.

As I said above, I will do some more research into this fascinating effort at restoring freedom in Colorado Springs to see how it is doing. It certainly merits attention, as does any effort to reduce the size of ineffective and inefficient government and allow people to keep more of their wealth without seriously degrading their lives.

Unfortunately, these types of behavior, an effective city politician (or any kind of effective politician), a benevolent citizenry which helps out fellow citizens, and forward thinking, freedom loving Americans seem to be in short supply in recent times. This comes particularly clear in the next two posts where we post the many instances of The Bad and The Ugly.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.