3rd district independent council race? "There are no good reasons for empowering this dysfunction any longer."

With the filing deadline for independent candidates fast approaching, let’s take a final look at the mathematics of the 3rd district council race.

The numbers are as cruel as they are inevitable.

Certain truths are unchanged. In political terms, the incumbent councilman Steve Price is little better than a massive block of impervious, weighty and perpetually muddled cement tied to the ankle of New Albany’s downtown revitalization effort, both in terms of the city’s core neighborhoods and its historic business district. In spite of his halfhearted pre-election promises that he intends to represent all of his constituents, he has failed to do so through four underachieving years of his first term, and almost certainly won’t improve on this record of neglect if he is re-elected this fall.

There is a simple reason for Price’s inability to honor his pledge: An inherent disinterest in, and in many cases active antipathy to, the things in life that motivate those people who aren’t like Price. The councilman suffers from an utter and complete absence of future vision, of palpable interest in his own further education, of appreciation for diversity, and of basic political gravitas.

To be succinct, there is no hope for a recovery on Price’s part because he has no discernable desire to learn anything at all beyond what he already grasped as an adolescent. He is a political cipher, contemptuous of knowledge, and he will not change. A penurious mode of cautious, whining, drawling urban damage control is Price’s genetic default setting, and we had might as well get used to it.

Why?

Because in these reactions to a planet he does not understand, Price unfortunately is not alone, and because he is not alone, and because there is an unchanging (at least until death, relocation or imprisonment) bloc of similarly non-minded individuals inhabiting his long-suffering district -- and because most of them, whether Democrat or Republican, buy into the self-identification of the two-party system at its most insanely futile -- it is highly unlikely that the incumbent can be beaten in a three-way race. This has now been proven in successive Democratic primaries.

It is not likely to be disproved now that the Republican Party has declared its intention to select Brenda Scharlow as the GOP candidate in the 3rd district.

Another truth as yet unchanged is that logic and experience indicate that there is only one way to defeat Price, and that is through absolute unity behind a single opposition candidate.

Unity obviously cannot be achieved by fielding an independent candidate and splitting the anti-Price vote, although as I write there are numerous trial balloons being floated and just as many rumors disseminated, and as usually is the case in such self-aggrandizing matters, it is virtually impossible to distinguish the sincere statements of intent from the unhealthy zeal for politics-as-usual game-playing that is the fundamental reason for New Albany’s enduring two-party, small-pond political dysfunction.

There are no good reasons for empowering this dysfunction any longer. I’ll not be running as a candidate, and as the situation stands, there exist no valid case for supporting an independent candidacy of any sort in the 3rd district. Perhaps in 2011, but not this year. The window was cracked open this spring, and an enduringly inexplicable unwillingness on the part of residents to communicate openly with each other slammed it shut. So be it. I -- we -- have other things to do.

But make no mistake: Realism isn’t the same as defeatism, and I’m not discouraged, deflated or otherwise desiring to retire from the struggle on behalf of progressive thinking in the future tense.

In fact, I plan to be quite busy laying the groundwork for ultimate success by continuing this on-line advocacy in the blogosphere and devoting even more time to supporting business ventures – embryonic ones of my own that are under development, and those of others already on the ground, vibrant, and contributing to the revitalization of downtown New Albany, especially the tracts within Price’s own council district that he has done next to nothing to assist during four wasted years of wrongheaded council obstinacy.

Although the anti-Price forces in the 3rd district have yet to show a willingness to unify and win, I remain confident that the helpful cause of interpersonal communications will be advanced, if not now, then later. Self-interest eventually will bring us all to the table, with the only question being how long we'll wait to see it.

I have not contacted Brenda Scharlow prior to writing this essay, and now take this opportunity to publicly request of her a comprehensive platform for her fall campaign. Assuming she complies, and that her planks seem reasonable to me (an open hint: omit the standard GOP fascistic social agenda and you’ll be fine), I’ll proceed to publish her platform in this space, to endorse her candidacy, and to offer to meet her at Bistro New Albany or Connor’s Place (or both) to publicly make good (and be photographed doing so) on my onetime promise to drink Miller Lite before ever again voting Republican.

That’s because if she runs, voting Republican is what I’ll be doing in the 3rd district council race this fall, and in doing so, understand that I most emphatically will not be voting “against” a Democratic Party that itself possesses those cherished ideals closest to my own.

Rather, I’ll be voting “against” the incompetent rogue and vacant charlatan Price’s ongoing political blasphemy against those Democratic principles that I possess even if not participating as an active member of the party structure. Herewith the local party is encouraged to jettison those reactionary elements within it that have done the most to disgrace these principles, including Price and his like-non-minded partners in grime like Dan Coffey. Perhaps the party will step forward yet and offer substance that the rest of us can embrace.

Discuss if you wish, or not at all, and sincere thanks to all who have taken an interest in the topics considered here. Your opinions and counsel have been invaluable, and are much appreciated.

I -- we -- aren't going away. Going to work ... going to the mattresses ... going for a Progressive pint or three ... but not away. See you around town.