Group organizes to fight against tolling on the Ohio River Bridges ProjectTalk about weird: Roger the Atheist Commie was there, and so was a representative of the Clark County Tea Party. My guess is that most attendees were Republican, as many spoke of newly elected congressman Todd Young on a first-name basis.
“I don’t care if the toll is 50 cents, it’s a reason for them to stay on the Louisville side of the river,” said Mike Kapfhammer, owner of Buckhead Mountain Grill and Rocky’s Sub Pub.
Kapfhammer’s co-owner of Buckhead Mountain Grill, Wes Johnson, agreed.
“The bottom line is tolls are bad for Indiana business,” he said.
The group cited support for anti-toll sentiment through 10,000 signatures on a petition and eight elected bodies in the region that have passed some sort of resolution opposing tolls.
“Eighty percent, in my opinion are with us,” Kapfhammer said. “We’ve just got to figure a way to carry that flag.”
And yet, in Southern Indiana, it is the Republican Party that is promoting tolls, and semantics aside, tolls plainly are a tax increase for Hoosier working commuters and Hoosier small businesses.
Obviously, there is raging cognitive dissonance afoot. Our State Representative Ed Clere clearly is the poster child for this strange malady, even as other local ranking Republicans confide privately that they're against tolls.
Why is that?
The GOP won mid-terms on a platform of fiscal rectitude and "no tax hikes," and both the bridges project and tolls necessary to animate it absolutely contradict both platform points, and yet Clere's only recorded thoughts on the matter were lashings of any taxpayer, ranging from the suthor to little old ladies, with the temerity to ask questions.
Who'd have imagined that One Southern Indiana's endorsements were worth that much hypocrisy ... although we can't rule out the psychotropic qualities of St. Daniels' patented Kool-Aid elixir.
Fallicians, heal thyselves. How do you square this circle?
From "business" groups upstream, playing along with the chamber's political platform is worth tens of thousands of campaign dollars. Clere has taken time to deride the involvement of lobbyists at the state house in the past, just not the ones who donate to him.
ReplyDeleteThere are webs of contrived dissonance on both sides of the river, most of which end up at the bank.
It's hard to stop using the river as a communal sewer once you start...
ReplyDeleteOn 11-16-10, I sent the following email:
ReplyDelete"Representative Clere,
Now that the Bridges Authority has stated(2 days after the election)that tolls will have to be a part of the project’s financing, what is your positions on tolling the existing bridges—Kennedy, Clark Memorial, and Sherman Minton?
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark I. Cassidy
106 Miede Drive
New Albany, IN 47150"
Crickets chirp...
Rep. Clere is a busy man, Mark. How often do you expect him to tell you to shut the f*^k up before you finally listen and beg him for another -- bridge, that is.
ReplyDeleteHe is going to have to tell me a whole bunch of times.
ReplyDeleteIt's an email to his "HR" official account. Not Facebook, even though that page was entitled with his official elected position. Wonder who will get the blame for deleting my email? Will his apologists still maintain that he is an honorable man and really does engage with his constituents? What does it take to get a response from your elected representative?
Inquiring minds want to know.