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 Post subject: Rich James: A Progressive anti-Populist
PostPosted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 9:39 am 
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Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:29 pm
Posts: 630
Although he passes himself off, alternately, as an advocate of the common man and then as water boy for Pete Visclosky or NIRPC, like all too many political Progressives, Rich James cloaks a fundamental disdain for the democratically determined will of the People.

The favorite tactic of the socio-political Progressive is to substitute and subvert the democratic processes of collective decision-making with the ideology of leadership, such that officials elected to represent the preponderant will of their respective constituencies, in fact function as their bosses, in a near total inversion of agent & principal.

To get away with it requires that an ideology of leadership be constantly reinforced by the narratives and language of the media. There is no bigger proponent of this political/legal subversion than James, who consistently exploits his journalistic stature and column to further subordinate/subvert the de facto political status of the citizenry, in order to advance the unelected authority of administrative agencies such as NIRPC or the derivative authority of elected officials such Congressman Peter Visclosky, as though the individual views of those populating the agencies or holding government office were, ipso facto, superior to will of the majority. Indeed, majority be damned!

Consider his advocacy for more taxes to fund construction of infrastructure for the benefit of bankers, real estate developers, realtors and high-end gated-communities:

RICH JAMES: NIRPC should hold sway on South Shore extension

Rich James has been writing about state and local government and politics for more than 30 years.

8 hours ago • By Rich James

The two most significant events I’ve seen in nearly four decades of writing about government in Northwest Indiana happened in the last couple of weeks.

That’s quite a statement. And yes, it doesn’t bode well for the region. But hey, it might well show that we have turned a very large corner.

The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission last week overwhelmingly approved the Illiana Expressway in the face of passionate opposition. It’ll be the first significant Lake County highway project in five decades.

And about the same time, Lake County’s plethora of governments seemed just a step away — after years of jostling — from forming a countywide E-911 system.

Is there hope that NWI is coming together for the common good? I hope to tell you.

Before anyone decides to kick back and light a cigar, they should be reminded that there’s work to be done. And the next deadline is looming.

After the Illiana folks left the NIRPC meeting last week, the agency adopted a resolution supporting increased financial support for South Shore Line railroad expansion.

It’s nice that they did that, but resolutions are virtually spineless. Resolutions are what governmental bodies do when they don’t have the power to do anything else.

South Shore expansion from Chicago to Lowell should be next on the region’s agenda of moving out of the 1950s into the 21st century.

And, yes, it should happen now. South Shore expansion has been studied to death. It is time to acquire track, buy cars and hire conductors.

And the guy who’s grown most impatient is U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, the guy holding much of the money.

And the usually mild-mannered Visclosky laid down the law a couple months ago. He said he wants a local funding source to match the federal money he can acquire by March.

A local funding source ought to include state money and a local tax. And because there will be South Shore expansion to Valparaiso after Lowell, all of Northwest Indiana ought to pay for it. Don’t tell me that some Porter County people won’t slide over to Lowell to ride the new train to Chicago for jobs that pay 40 percent more than similar jobs here.

Settling on a new tax is a fairly dicey proposition. The General Assembly will have to authorize a new tax that would be adopted locally.

So how do we arrive at a consensus?

We need a facilitator, someone to bring us together. Because there isn’t a dominant city in Northwest Indiana, that consensus will have to be reached by committee. And that ought to be NIRPC.

By law, NIRPC had to vote on the Illiana. It doesn’t have to do anything in terms of South Shore funding. But it should if it wants to live up to its name of being a regional planning agency.

Rich James has been writing about state and local government and politics for more than 30 years. Email him at rjames@219.com. The opinions are the writer’s.

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Note the absolute omission of referendum vote, despite the call for new taxes! That's the way of Progressives - preemption of the People. Now, according to James, we have Visclosky "laying down the law" via his prophet Rich.

As i've said before, the media, the press is not the voice of the People. It no longer reports. Instead, in the new totalitarian-oriented media, it advocates and seeks to dictate and control public opinion by an ideology of leadership deforming our social construction of political reality.


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