Letter: Asheville progressives are losing ground

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I hate to break it to Asheville’s progressive community, but excepting a craft beer plethora; easy access to drugs; and a 7-0 monopoly on an increasingly confused City Council, you guys are losing ground.

Take a look at Asheville’s skyline and the cost of housing. Those aren’t food co-ops springing up all over town. And the $300,000 price tag on that Westville bungalow isn’t a hallucination.

You guys have spent so much time attacking — oh, the irony — Hillary’s imagined “right-wing conspiracy” you’ve missed the real conspiracy among your own.

Conspiracy, what conspiracy? Well, how about the one that finds your original dedications to liberty, progress and humanity being kidnapped by cults, crooks and crazies masquerading as civil rights advocates.

Who are we talking about? For starters, may I suggest Black Lives Matter and Antifa?

Like most radical organizations on the left or right, both are founded on anger. Justified or not, anger is addictive, and over time, like heroin, knows no bounds.

These two angry clusters mirror a pattern on the left that finds you fast becoming even more divided than the notoriously divided Republican Party. That’s an amazing feat, and we’ll be able to watch the not-so-amazing outcome come the midterms.

Where habituated anger is licensed, malice and violence toward property and persons is sure to follow. That’s why an already overworked Asheville Police Department is monitoring these groups.

Funny how special interests can so easily evolve toward selfish interests. The former is revealed by their efforts to raise awareness — the latter by the inability to resist excess. The anyway-you-like-it dedications of your side have burdened you with the insatiable.

It’s not my wish to mislead. As a Christian conservative Republican white guy, I’m not mourning the disruption. Still, as an equally dedicated culturist, I’d be amiss if I didn’t offer a suggestion or two toward recovery.

A wise man was once asked, “What’s the most important thing to people?” “To matter,” he answered. “We all need to matter.” You guys have a lot of acolytes needing better ways to matter.

A second bit of advice keys on that “anger is addictive” thing. There’s a big difference in personal or social growth and what I like to call “distraction therapy.” Though progressives love to march, scream, ridicule, deceive and knit pink vagina hats, experience tells us there’s a big difference in motion and action. Your side has a growing attachment to distraction over productive social action.

A final bit of input has potential impact on the craft beer union. Did you know that a posse of coffeehouse anarchists is targeting Asheville breweries? What greater proof of the catastrophic corruption of your movement?

It’s all going down per an indifference to America’s remarkable success equation (Liberty + Opportunity + Responsibility = Prosperity) married to an anarchical agenda seeking to replace an imperfect something with nothing. Increasingly, people with more positive and realistic views are wising up to the scam.

The erosion of the progressive movement in Asheville and elsewhere can be reduced to one thing. You’ve become a sanctuary for those believing it’s prudent to hack off an arm to cure a rash.

— Carl Mumpower
Chair, Buncombe County Republican Party
Asheville

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17 thoughts on “Letter: Asheville progressives are losing ground

  1. Johnny to the A

    “Like most radical organizations on the left or right, both are founded on anger. Justified or not, anger is addictive, and over time, like heroin, knows no bounds”

    “Though progressives love to march, scream, ridicule, deceive and knit pink vagina hats, experience tells us there’s a big difference in motion and action. Your side has a growing attachment to distraction over productive social action.”

    These are the most honest statements to have been made in Buncombe County in decades.

    Balance in this cow town will never be restored. Asheville has died after eating itself and only parasites remaining feeding on the corpse.

    • Lulz

      LOL oh they be good at protesting at Pack Square. But outside of their bubble, they are a laughingstock. Best thing to happen was denying them the ability to steal more property outside the city limits via annexation. Next is district elections.

      When the mayor, who is nothing more than a rich white woman full of privilege speaks at a metoo rally as if she’s a victim of the culture, you know these people are insane. And are victims not of any culture at large, but of their own self serving greed and lust for accolades from their peers.

  2. luther blissett

    The Mumpy doth protest too much, methinks.

    Dr M is trolling, of course, but doing so in a way that reveals his personal tragedy. He’s in the unenviable position of leading a county party that benefits from gerrymandered control of state government and congressional districts, as well as being granted in-roads to county and city government, but still has zero relevance to local politics and must content itself with the occasional cacophonous hootenanny at Off The Wagon.

    Meadows and McHenry don’t need BCGOP, and BCGOP can’t get people to show up in support of McHenry at his town halls. The Republican county commissioners don’t really need BCGOP either, and nor do the state House candidates. A small-government conservative like Dr M sees his political capacity reduced to jibber-jabber while Chucks Edwards and McGrady call the shots from down in Hendersonville.

    As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr M understands the importance of feeling in control of one’s life and surroundings as a way to manage life’s vicissitudes. It’s both ironic and inevitable that his complaint — systematic arbitrary disempowerment creates the conditions for protest — mirrors his own situation, and that he needs to believe in salvation from elsewhere.

    • Stan Hawkins

      This thread topic reminds me of a famous line from a great old movie, “Cool Hand Luke.” You may recall old blue eyes, rest his soul – Paul Newman played the part of Luke, a reluctant “candidate for reform” of the circa southern prison system of the 1940’s.

      The line, “what we have here is a failure to communicate” was uttered by the great character actor playing the prison yard guard in an unforgettable southern accent. Luke did not understand why he needed to conform and “progressively” (pun intended) continued his downward spiral.

      Why add this bit of trivia to this thread you might ask? It is this, many do not understand what “brand of progress” participants in the debate seek to achieve. The picture of liberal progress is never painted clearly for the skeptical conservative, and thus is expensive to the liberal agenda’s legitimacy. Consequently, this failure of communication usually results in throwing verbal stones at each other as can be seen in this thread, and at times personally. To be fair, conservatives often lean on what we feel are time tested truths that work for most, given the addition of individual responsibility. This evidently falls on deaf ears to our bewilderment.

      To simply say, “your brand of imperfection is worse than my brand of imperfection” seems like a race to the bottom when we will all say; “WHAT WE HAVE HERE – IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE.” (accent intended)

      • luther blissett

        “The picture of liberal progress is never painted clearly for the skeptical conservative, and thus is expensive to the liberal agenda’s legitimacy.”

        Affordable healthcare, housing and college. An end to the forty-year stagnation in wages while the richest get richer. A chance to build upon what their parents gave them to succeed.

        You know, the things that cranky white Boomers got handed on a silver plate while pretending they earned it themselves through “individual responsibility.”

        • Stan Hawkins

          Perhaps you should try hanging around more with some “white guys” who had nothing handed to them on a silver plate, worked 60 -65 hours per week in their early careers days, mentored minorities and white guys and gals in career development, paid all their taxes, gave some to charitable organizations, volunteered in numerous endeavors, and stayed married to the same wife for 38 years while raising three kids. And no, I am not angry, just smart enough to know the difference between progress and deterioration.

          Yes, we have some who refuse to put forth the effort and commitment to achieve. Yes, we have silver plate participants. And yes, we have some who are in circumstances where hope seems scarce. However, most would be hardpressed to find in history where “individual responsibility” was not a part of the equation for personal success.

    • Lou

      It’s ironic that his kind are permitted to routinely spout hatred and provoke division, yet many of my responses to his letters are unpublished. I believe it’s time to move on from Mountain X…they seem to have leaned a little far right too many times.

      • luther blissett

        At some point, trolling one’s readers reaches the point where you are dependent upon cranks.

        Though it tells you a lot about Dr Mumpower’s political influence.

  3. Enlightened Enigma

    Dr. Mumpower scores big again… his insight with his eloquent writing style is unmatched in AVL. He is the man who should be Mayor right now.

    But I would ask Dr. Mumpower, what he would do to bring accountability to the Housing Authority of AVL, our biggest enemy, for the citizen taxpayers, and why did he never do anything about it when on city council ?

    WHY is the Housing Authority of AVL allowed to continue their heinous ever expanding operations with NO downsizing nor assimilation ever wanted from these folks…NO because their paychecks depend on the numbers of public housing units they command on their government plantations. It’s becoming an OUTRAGE to AVL.

    • Lou

      He never did anything about it because, in my opinion, the GOP lies ALL THE TIME and does nothing to serve America…period.

  4. Jon King

    Dear Carl, I submit to you that everyone is losing ground, perhaps other than a select few. We have the means to house, feed, and care for every human being on the planet. We do not have the will to do it. Your avowed free market has consistently failed to do it. Your feigned worry about the fates of others is transparently false.

  5. J

    Losing ground or losing steam!? People are (slowing) becoming aware that what they want doesn’t matter; unless your willing and able to throw millions into campaign finance..
    we are an Oligarchy…. majority doesn’t matter

  6. A. Hill

    I see from my perspective as a centrist, that the Republican’s have become more divided and angry and dangerous than left leaning types. The Democrats WILL WIN AGAIN BECAUSE THEY ARE AT THIS POINT MORE INTRINSICALLY CENTRIST THAN WHAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE BECOME. This socialist thing is a flash in the pan being overhyped by the media. Bernie was backlash to Hillary, who even Democrats loathed. It’s really just that simple. Don’t over think it dude. You guys could have voted in someone more moderate who really could bring people together while improving the economy but instead……so this is what you get.

  7. Godslayer

    Only fascists have anything to fear from Antifa. Why is Dr. Mumps so afraid of them?

    • Carl Mumpower

      Dear Slayer – at this point it appears the only folks who need fear Antifa’s current Asheville impact are the guys and gals running craft breweries. In other parts of the country, the movement is more maliciously advanced.

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