Say Anything Blog

It doesn’t get more elitist than this screed from the Fargo Forum which attempts to explain away Cass County voters’ rejection of a tax hike in the name of “economic development”:

As voters were blowing away smoke, they also signaled they were in no mood for a countywide sales tax. No matter how sound the proposal for a half-cent science/tech development tax was, a combination of factors worked against it. Promoters had a tough time selling the concept of a tax that would have invested in the future. Jitters about the record-high cost of gasoline and rising food prices contributed to the tax’s defeat.

Right.  Voters didn’t reject this new tax because they don’t buy into the sort of cognitive dissonance which concludes that you can stimulate an economy by raising taxes.  They rejected it because they were too distracted by gas/food prices to realize what a good idea it was.

One wonders who the liberals and “revenue Republicans” at the Forum are trying to convince with this sort of ill-conceived logic:  The public?  Or themselves?  One gets the idea that certain people on the Forum’s editorial board need to be reminded that the guiding principle of American politics is “the consent of the governed” not “the consent of the political and media elite who think they know what’s best for everyone else.”

Regardless, the goal for Cass County citizens now is to play watchdog on their political leaders lest said leaders attempt to raises taxes and/or fund this “economic development” initiative anyway despite the clearly-expressed will of the voters.