FIRED UP! READY TO GO!

Please don’t look now.  It’s been w-a-a-y too long since I posted here.  It has been hectic.

First the primary, then a campaign and a political convention, then a presidential election and a tremendous let-down.

And now: Fired up! Ready to go!

There was a HUGE lull after Nov. 8’s depressing outcome.  But starting December 1, reaching a crescendo on January 20, people started calling the Democratic Party and walking in the door –all with the same message:

“I’m fed up with this person in the White House.  What can I do?”

The answers are legion.  There are so many activities going on.

Most visible is the attendance at meetings of local Party meetings: 4 and 5 times the usual turn-out, most often by people who haven’t ever been politically active, or haven’t been in decades.

People are calling and writing to their state and federal legislators.

People are attending Town Halls and parading at the offices when their elected representatives won’t hold constituent meetings.

People are signing up with Requests To Speak on pending legislation.

Most visible is the attendance at meetings of local Legislative Districts: 4 and 5 times the usual turn-out, most often by people who haven’t ever been politically active, or haven’t been in decades.

Here are some examples:

A New Kid On The Block arrived at the office –transferred to Phoenix by his employer in the Midwest.  “What can I do to turn Arizona Blue?” he asked.  BOOM: A new registered voter.  A new name on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL).  A new volunteer.  Maybe even a new member of a Precinct Committee.  

·      
     A five-year-old from the NW, who, along with his parents is visiting his grandparents here in the Valley, came in to get a stack of forms to take to ASU to register new voters.

·      A Snowbird couple “of a certain age” staying in Wickenburg called the office in search of friendly faces and thoughtful minds with whom to have coffee without being offended by political views. You know what it says in Russian on that over-sized hat!

·      A lawyer living in Sun City called to help us recruit candidates for office.

·      A staffer at the hospital down the street just stopped in after getting off work early to see what we have to offer in the way of stopping some of the horrible legislation that is being offered at the State Capitol.

·      Lotsa people are calling in from Anthem –YES!! Anthem-- on the northern fringe of Maricopa County yet within Legislative District 1 based in Prescott, looking for people and places closer to home as outlets for their political passions.

But the best was a Valley visitor from Canada who saw the sign on our building from her hotel room across the street.  Though here on a business trip, she’s an ex-pat from Baltimore who still votes in U.S. elections.  All that she wanted were a few words of encouragement about her homeland.  She got them.

So the question remains: Are you FIRED UP! READY TO GO!?  And if not, what’s it gonna take?

JUST SAY NO to Open Primaries

Should people have a say in the candidates, policies or leadership of a group to which they do not belong?

No.  

“Not fair,” you say?

Consider: there are NO especially independent voters. ALL voters in this country are independent, in the sense that no one holds a gun to anybody’s head forcing them to vote a certain way.

There are unaffiliated voters. These are people who for one reason or another decide not to affiliate with a group.  On Election Day they have a voice of one.

Do you prefer to address the BIG PICTURE or LITTLE PICTURE, the political or the social?

To begin with, a political party is an organization or club.  If you want a say in its decisions, join it.  But non-members are bound by the decisions, just as non-residents and non-citizens still follow our laws even if they didn’t have a say in passing them.

If you want a say in the leadership and policies of a group then join the group.

The four officially-recognized political parties in Arizona welcome all new members who meet their qualifications.  And there is a way to work your way up through the organization to have greater and greater influence.

·     

•      Go to area meetings of your chosen party. 
• ·      Get the signatures of 10 neighbors and become a member of a neighborhood Precinct Committee.
• ·      Run for office in your district. 
• ·      Attend county conventions.
• ·      Become a member of the state party.
• ·      Go to a state convention.
• ·      Run for a statewide party office. 
• ·      Recruit other like-minded voters. 
• ·      Raise money.
• ·      Become a delegate to your party’s national convention.

On a personal level it has taken me nearly six years to go through most of those 10 steps.  You can, too.  And then, if you don’t like what’s going on in the party that you joined, you are in the wrong party.  Form your own.  But don’t tell me how to run mine.

Do you want a non-political example?  How about your place of work?  I’ll bet that you have management or employee meetings where decisions are made.  Sometimes these decisions affect some segment of the public –customers, patrons or readers.

Think of the daily meeting at my favorite newspaper or tv station, when editors decide what stories get put on page one, or lead the evening telecast and so on.  Do I get a voice?  

NO.

My choices are: Read the newspaper or watch the tv news that they produce, become a stockholder and buy my way up the chain of command.  Get a job at the paper or tv station and work my way up the chain of command.  Or don’t read the paper or watch the tv news.

As to clubs in general, consider your local Girl Scout or Boy Scout organization.  They have adult committees; they have Scout troops and patrols.  Do I get a voice in the leadership or policies, even though I live half-a-mile away?

No.  Not unless I join.  Yes, non-parents are welcome.

I belong to another civic group with the same requirements: You want a voice? You want a vote?  It’s the same with the Kiwanis, Rotary, Elks, Masons, American Legion and every other civic organization. 

In the political arena, often people say that they want to vote in places where they are not part of the electorate.

For instance, there are lots of people who are bound by our nation’s laws who do not get to participate in the making of those laws.  They aren’t part of the electorate.

Examples are tourists, business travelers, minors, un-registered adults and, yes, felons. They didn’t write the law but they must obey it.

If they want to effect change in the country they need to join the ranks and becomes citizens.

Likewise, coast-to-coast drivers must obey all kinds of laws that where adopted without their consent –or even knowledge. They aren’t part of the electorate in those places.

On a local level, when driving between Scottsdale and Phoenix I try to skirt the Town of Paradise Valley because I don’t like the way they enforce their traffic laws.  But when I must use Lincoln Road through the middle of the town of Paradise Valley I am subject to its traffic laws. 

I’m not part of the electorate in Paradise Valley.    If I want to change the law in the Town of Paradise Valley I need to register to vote in Paradise Valley.

I figure that by now you’ve got the idea: Join a group in order to have a say in its candidates, policies or leadership.  It’s called civic engagement.

Gun Insurance

Anyone who has ever held, fired or owned a gun has respect for it. It is a mistake to assume that all gun owners are gun nuts.  It is also a mistake to assume that all gun owners have the same reason for owning guns.

Once we understand the differences we can become more effective in dealing with these various stakeholders.

Without knowing what percentage each is of the total, here are six possible categories of gun owners:

1.              Hunters.

2.              Competitive  shooters.

3.              People seeking protection when away from home.

4.              People seeking protection from burglars and rapists at home.

5.              Bullies and anti-establishment sovereign citizens seeking to intimidate others.

6.              Career criminals, many of whom obtained their guns through home break-ins.

And because we all have the same human frailties, any one of these six could become irrational, fly off the handle, lose his or her temper or be pushed over the edge by unforeseen events.

As we do other personal property, we should agree that it makes sense to insure a gun against breakage, damage, mis-use and theft.

An argument needs to be fashioned to persuade legitimate gun owners that liability insurance must be part of that package.  This must be presented in such a way as to not be interfering with one’s right to keep and bear arms as provided for under the Constitution’s Second Amendment.  Statistics on gun thefts, and the subsequent injuries and crimes committed by people using stolen guns, along with insurance discounts, should convince all in the first five categories of gun owners on the need to prevent their guns from falling into the hands of the sixth category.

Once accomplished, insurance carriers will make people aware that how they handle their weapons affects the price of insurance coverage.

This is similar to other forms of insurance.

·      Non-smokers get discounts on auto, health and fire insurance.

·      Driver-Ed graduates get discounts on auto insurance.

·      Owners of sprinkler-equipped homes get discounts on homeowners insurance.

The thrust needs to be on assuring the safety of others –i.e., preventing accidents--  without compromising the safety of the gun owner. 

Hunters and competitive shooters ought to be able to see the wisdom of keeping guns and ammo separate and locked.  They should welcome a discount for doing what they see as sensible anyway.

People who carry guns –either visible or concealed—for protection when they are away from home can be educated to carry weapons locked and ammunition separately.  A discount on insurance should be helpful in educating them.

People who keep guns on their nightstands or under their pillows might not see the wisdom of keeping weapons and ammunition separately.  They may see rapid response as crucial to their perceived need for security at home.  But they can be shown the wisdom of not keeping guns on counter-tops, coffee-tables and the like when they are not at home.  Statistics on gun thefts, and the subsequent injuries and crimes committed by people using stolen guns, along with insurance discounts, should convince the home-security gun-owner that no one is abridging his or her right to keep and bear arms.

These nightstand and under pillow gun owners also need to respect the danger that their guns represent to welcome visitors –let alone to themselves when tempers flare.

Arizona Needs To Follow California, NOT Kansas Tax Strategy: Tax People Who Can Afford To Pay

Gov. Ducey need not follow the failed example of Kansas Gov. Brownback who learned that a state cannot slash and burn its way out of a budget crisis –not if “Dorothy” ever wants to find her way home.

Our state should have learned from past efforts to replicate here the failed anti-gay,  anti-women, anti-immigrant ideas of Kansas theoreticians who tried to bring their mean-spiritedness here.

It was a year ago that the Religious News Service pointed out that “gay rights are colliding with religious rights in states like Arizona and Kansas as the national debate over gay marriage morphs into a fight over the dividing line between religious liberty and anti-gay discrimination.”

Tim Schultz, the State Legislative Policy Director for the American Religious Freedom Program, called the Kansas bill “a thoughtful and balanced civil rights law,” saying that the legislation would “ensure that Kansans of all faiths continue to enjoy robust rights to the free exercise of religion for many generations to come.”

The ARFP is part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a conservative Washington think-tank.

The effort was spearheaded locally by the Center for Arizona Policy, a social conservative group that opposes abortion and gay marriage. The group says the proposal is needed to protect against increasingly activist federal courts and simply clarifies existing state law.

 The same is true with taxes for these slash and burn folks.

The opposite approach was taken by Gov. Jerry Brown of California. He raised taxes on those who could afford to pay them, and took the state from deficit to surplus by spending the way out of the recession.

Jobs are up in California: 16% of US job growth. The state now has a thriving economy –8^th largest in the world.

Meanwhile, in Arizona there is a looming $1-Billion Dollars in red ink in a budget of nearly $10-Billion.  We can’t trim our way out of that because educational spending is nearly half of the budget.

And we owe the state’s schools $1.3-Billion from past efforts to grow big business on the backs of future voters.

Conservative economist Ben Stein on Fox News said, “I don’t think there is any way we can cut spending enough to make a meaningful difference. We are going to have to raise taxes on very rich people.”

Disguise it as “reversing” a 30% cut in the corporate income tax rate. Fudge it by reinstating an expired sales tax.  Call it the new Reaganomics.  We can even be honest and make those who earn more money actually pay more in taxes.