Friday, March 20, 2015

Conservatism - what does in mean in 2015?

Since 2010, we've seen the word "Conservative", spelled out in big bold letters across just about every Tennessee state politician, including our own here in Weakley County, State Representative Andy Holt and State Senator John Stevens. From the governor's race on down, "Conservative" is word of the day. However,  "Conservative" doesn't mean what it used to.

It used to be that people who referred to themselves as "Conservative" proudly believed that in almost all decision making, a small, limited and local government is preferable to large state and federal government.  The folks who call themselves "Conservative" in the Tennessee Legislature no longer believe that to be true.

In the past 5 years local government have been quietly stripped of their right to combat dangerous meth problems in their own towns, they've been stripped of the right to decide for themselves if they want a for profit charter school, and this year they are about to be stripped of their right to make public safety decisions about their own parks. At this pace, city and county governments will soon be irrelevant and we'll all just be subject the whims and wills of our state legislators

First it was meth. Frustrated by inaction, local police groups started letting their mayors know that in order to really make a dent in the meth lab problem, we need to deal with the easy availability of pseudo ephedrine. Cities across Tennessee, including Martin, voted to ban the sale of pseudo ephedrine without a prescription within city limits. The makers of Sudafed didn't like that, and quickly there after, "Conservatives" didn't like it either. The General Assembly quickly nullified the right of a city to pursue it's own solution. The key ingredient to meth will remain readily available to any and all who want it, declared the "Conservative' state government. The freedom of drug companies trumped the rights of locally elected government - or put another way Big Corporations squashed small government.

This was just the first in a series of moves by the "Conservative" state legislature. Local school districts are no longer allowed to decide for themselves if a charter school (run by a private corporation) is right for them. The people who elected representatives to the school board are irrelevant - their opinion about how their schools are run does not matter because this is now a state decision. It was surprising how quiet schools were to react to this power grab, but then again teachers and schools alike have been threatened with extinction if they don't get in line and do what the state legislature says.

And now, in this legislative session, the "Conservative" continue their attack on small towns and big cities alike. And once again, when asked to side with either a big corporation or a small local government, the "Conservative" legislators are falling in line with the big corporation. A bill to strip local governments of their right to decide public safety issues for themselves is making it's way through the state House and Senate. And if it passes, if the city of Martin does not want to allow guns at Family Fun Night in the park, they will no longer have the right to make that decision. The state will make it for them.

It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with pseudo ephedrine prescriptions, for profit charter schools or guns in parks - your right to debate it with your fellow townsfolk and come to a decision as a local community has been been permanently revoked by the "Conservative" state legislature.  So, I have to ask, what exactly does "Conservative" mean these days?