Though the left continues to dominate our community with unchallenged impunity, cracks are developing that are destined to bend things back into balance.
In a city and county where less than 5% of our attorneys are registered Republicans; 98% of our elected officials are Democrats; public schools are staffed by a dramatic majority of left-minded teachers and administrators; and all of our mainstream media outlets are liberally biased, diversity of thought, view and policy doesn’t exist.
Ironically, Hurricane Helene has been a bright reality check on this status quo that’s illuminated local governments more addicted to social engineering than dependable services.
It’s been five years since our mayor, Council and various bands of anything-but-peaceful protesters successfully eviscerated our Police Department. In spite of a parade of pledges, declarations and assertions, the dramatically reduced numbers of officers in service have remained essentially the same since that original political beatdown. Asheville Police Department’s capacity to respond to most nonviolent crimes has been similarly AWOL.
If you live off the labors of others or are otherwise able to avoid property taxes, you’ll limp along in our elitist and increasingly unaffordable city. If you’re an enterprising soul or own things of value, look to have your pockets picked in upcoming years. Though federal and state funds are temporarily bailing out Asheville and Buncombe County’s rainy-day indifference, our downturn in commerce and tourism, combined with a painful storm recovery, are creating substantial funding deficits. Your wallet will soon be called upon to fix that.
Perhaps the single biggest wake-up call on our city’s liberal bent and systemic resistance to political diversity is the ongoing Black reparations initiative. Taxpayers continue to fund this ironically anything-but-racially-inclusive commission with subsidies for the participants. That partially explains their lack of meaningful progress, but most of the letdown can be tracked to city and county leaders who’ve set these misguided folks up for failure. Though the lack of external oversight allows local government to get by — for now — with exceptions, it remains that applying taxpayer funds on the basis of color is neither moral nor legal. Reparations pretense is political motion on a collision course with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Don’t look now, but we live in a self-correcting world, and Asheville is not exempt. Hurricane Helene was a demonstration. There’s more to come as the local pendulum ponderously swings back to a point of balance.
— Carl Mumpower
Asheville
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