s/o ideological politics of MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Exactly. Now do pot.

[Anonymous]

It happened because the educational system has now successfully indoctrinated two generations of people who do what they are told by there handlers.

If not for COVID it would have continued unchecked. Was the ruse discovered in time to save America only time will tell but Montgomery County has been lost forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kristin Mink and Will Jawando routinely get outvoted by the 9 other councilmembers that are all more moderate than they are.

Elrich is not in office because he is progressive. He is in office because he combines support of the unions with support from NIMBYs.

The problem with Montgomery County is not ideology. It's that unions and NIMBYs have too much power and they stifle any effort to grow the county's economy. Forget about making things business-friendly, we can't do that. Forget about changes to neighborhoods designed in the 1940s, we can't do that.

Are you just naming things that you don’t like, or are you saying that any of those things are related?

I don’t know which neighborhoods you are talking about, but the ones I am familiar with don’t look anything like they did in the 1940’s. People bought homes, they have been improved and enlarged, and the neighborhoods have improved over time. Those neighborhoods attract businesses that employ people. I think that you are somehow implying that the people that own the homes and have made the improvements are NIMBYs because they don’t support the tearing down of their communities and disruption of their lives via zoning changes. They have built plenty. They continue to spend money and pay taxes and generate economic growth in the county. There are plenty of places to build near transit for density, there is no real need to evenly distribute density, and it seems terrible expensive for MOCO to build transit just to to say that existing areas are now near transit just to distribute density. It doesn’t even make sense.

What does that all have to do with unions? Is your plan to keep everyone poor and build garbage density all over so that we live in some giant company town? We can both attract high wage tech companies and also make sure that people at the lower end of the scale can eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not another “omg Montgomery County is dying from communism” thread.

I am more curious from the birds-eye view standpoint as how MoCo became in the last 20 or so years so ideologically distinct from the rest of the region which is pretty mainstream and moderate. Previously, MoCo elected Connie Morella Republicans and Doug Duncan Democrats, as someone mentioned in another thread. How did we go from that to electing Marc Elrich, Kristin Mink, and Will Jawando?

You can say there is a less White and more diverse electorate, but that does not mean more progressive. Usually people of color vote for moderate Democrats, not progressives. You can also say it’s the dominance of Takoma Park/Silver Spring activists, but why? Why doesn’t the rest of the county outvote them? And what draws more left leaning people to places like downtown Silver Spring anyway? Is it some kind of self sorting like people with left wing views move here or is it a highly successful effort to drown out more moderate voices?

Your premise is faulty. There aren't any more "Connie Morella" Republicans. The Republicans got rid of them. Meanwhile, on the County Council: Friedson, Balcombe, Katz, Sayles, Luedtke, Albornoz, and Sayles.

The Democrats got rid of Morella by rezoning her district so Van Hollen could win.

And it was a brilliant move.

You’re welcome.

And yet, it was not. It was part of the decades of gerrymandering (from both parties depending on strength in any particular state) that have rendered moderate candidates extinct. It is a significant contributor to the extremism you see on both sides of the aisle and the constant gridlock we suffer now.

Van Hollen, the extremist

30 years ago Democrats and Republicans worked together, across the aisle. Connie Morella was one of them. And having Republicans like that made Republican leadership work for compromise. They no longer do. Gerrymandering to make one state almost all blue is what has killed it. Just like gerrymandering to make other states almost all red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Compromise creates two losers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Compromise creates two losers.

I prefer 2 loses in this context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Electric leafblowers are a thing that exists, and people use them, including mow and blow crews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kristin Mink and Will Jawando routinely get outvoted by the 9 other councilmembers that are all more moderate than they are.

Elrich is not in office because he is progressive. He is in office because he combines support of the unions with support from NIMBYs.

The problem with Montgomery County is not ideology. It's that unions and NIMBYs have too much power and they stifle any effort to grow the county's economy. Forget about making things business-friendly, we can't do that. Forget about changes to neighborhoods designed in the 1940s, we can't do that.

Are you just naming things that you don’t like, or are you saying that any of those things are related?

I don’t know which neighborhoods you are talking about, but the ones I am familiar with don’t look anything like they did in the 1940’s. People bought homes, they have been improved and enlarged, and the neighborhoods have improved over time. Those neighborhoods attract businesses that employ people. I think that you are somehow implying that the people that own the homes and have made the improvements are NIMBYs because they don’t support the tearing down of their communities and disruption of their lives via zoning changes. They have built plenty. They continue to spend money and pay taxes and generate economic growth in the county. There are plenty of places to build near transit for density, there is no real need to evenly distribute density, and it seems terrible expensive for MOCO to build transit just to to say that existing areas are now near transit just to distribute density. It doesn’t even make sense.

What does that all have to do with unions? Is your plan to keep everyone poor and build garbage density all over so that we live in some giant company town? We can both attract high wage tech companies and also make sure that people at the lower end of the scale can eat.

Found one of the NIMBYs

Thanks for making an appearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Electric leafblowers are a thing that exists, and people use them, including mow and blow crews.

… and a rebate would have helped people buy those electric leaf blowers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kristin Mink and Will Jawando routinely get outvoted by the 9 other councilmembers that are all more moderate than they are.

Elrich is not in office because he is progressive. He is in office because he combines support of the unions with support from NIMBYs.

The problem with Montgomery County is not ideology. It's that unions and NIMBYs have too much power and they stifle any effort to grow the county's economy. Forget about making things business-friendly, we can't do that. Forget about changes to neighborhoods designed in the 1940s, we can't do that.

Are you just naming things that you don’t like, or are you saying that any of those things are related?

I don’t know which neighborhoods you are talking about, but the ones I am familiar with don’t look anything like they did in the 1940’s. People bought homes, they have been improved and enlarged, and the neighborhoods have improved over time. Those neighborhoods attract businesses that employ people. I think that you are somehow implying that the people that own the homes and have made the improvements are NIMBYs because they don’t support the tearing down of their communities and disruption of their lives via zoning changes. They have built plenty. They continue to spend money and pay taxes and generate economic growth in the county. There are plenty of places to build near transit for density, there is no real need to evenly distribute density, and it seems terrible expensive for MOCO to build transit just to to say that existing areas are now near transit just to distribute density. It doesn’t even make sense.

What does that all have to do with unions? Is your plan to keep everyone poor and build garbage density all over so that we live in some giant company town? We can both attract high wage tech companies and also make sure that people at the lower end of the scale can eat.

Found one of the NIMBYs

Thanks for making an appearance.

Another NIMBY here. Proud one too. Get a life!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Electric leafblowers are a thing that exists, and people use them, including mow and blow crews.

You obviously don't do this for a living, or know anyone who does. The batteries don't last a whole day, so businesses are bringing gas powered generators to their work sites (your yards) to either plug in equipment or charge batteries.

Electric is find for homeowners. Not businesses. The tech isn't there yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Electric leafblowers are a thing that exists, and people use them, including mow and blow crews.

… and a rebate would have helped people buy those electric leaf blowers.

Only Republicans offer rebates. In progressive land you simply say requiring electric leaf blowers is too expensive and disproportionately affects the poor and POC so let's just ban all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an old school liberal. I think the extremist wing of the democratic party has become the opposite of liberal. I believe in funding schools, programs for the less fortunate, and supporting labor. But I don't want to mask mandates, vaccine passports, telling restaurant owners what they have to sell, and banning leaf blowers. I think some in the democratic party today are far too trusting of government and actually wanting to restrict ideas and speech. My parents are also old school vietnam war era liberals, and i think there is something to be learned from them.

It is not extreme to ban leafblowers. Why should I be forced to breath your polluted air?

Of course it is extreme. They are hurting working class jobs, often held by Latinos. A compromise like a voluntary rebate program would have been much more sensible. But the progressives here are extremists. Compromise is a dirty word. To them it means failure.

Electric leafblowers are a thing that exists, and people use them, including mow and blow crews.

You obviously don't do this for a living, or know anyone who does. The batteries don't last a whole day, so businesses are bringing gas powered generators to their work sites (your yards) to either plug in equipment or charge batteries.

Electric is find for homeowners. Not businesses. The tech isn't there yet.

That's interesting, because the mow and blowers use electric leafblowers at the condo building where I own a unit. The condo association required it, and hearing protection, too. Maybe the next time they're there, I should tell them that what they're doing is impossible.

[Anonymous]

I miss Legett and Duncan; sane Democrats