Just got this comment on a previous post:
Does having the word "reform" in the title of this organization
blind you to what is going on? The stated purpose of Governor Sanford’s
new advocacy group is to function as a PAC, supporting candidates who
back Sanford’s agenda to "modernize" the state government by giving the
Governor more policy-making authority. You miss two important points.
So far Governor Sanford’s thrust in modernization has been to shift the
tax burden (drop top income tax rate, shift property tax on high-end
properties to sales tax) more toward middle and lower income citizens.
The other key point he has pushed is private school vouchers. His main
tool has been public deceptive bashing of the public schools laced with
Libertarian rationale and shadow groups targeting the Republican and
Democratic opponents of his scheme. The seed money for this group came
from his left-over war chest funded largely by out-of-state and local
well-heeled donors. He plans to use PAC money to threaten legislators
who don’t back his agenda as thoroughly as he wants. If it walks and
quacks like a PAC, it’s a PAC. Wake up, Brad.Posted by: Harry Harris | Sep 27, 2007 8:26:09 AM
To which I respond:
Oh, I’ve been awake, Harry. I’m the guy who ran down the street SCREAMING THE NEWS (click on the link if you’ve forgotten).
This post is about the fact that at least NOW he’s talking about actual
reform. To start with, his libertarian extremist agenda was all that
was being mentioned. Now at least there’s a decent goal in the mix. I take that for exactly what it’s worth, and no more.
Which brings me to my real point today: EVERYONE, PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS. Before you
assume that I, of all people, don’t "get it" when it comes to Sanford’s
extremism, CLICK ON THE LINKS. Everything that I write should be seen
within the context of everything else I’ve written. The wonderful thing
about writing on the Web is that you can address the point of the
moment, and link to all the context. It saves you and me both from a lot of boring
repetition.
At least, it’s boring to me.
Seriously, this ability to simply continue a dialogue without all the repetition may be the greatest charm of a blog to me. The extent to which that connectivity is interrupted — such as, when something I wrote in the paper is no longer available online — is probably one of my greatest frustrations. That’s why you’ll see me go to the trouble to imbed Word files with old columns and such — that’s my workaround, and I take the time to do it because the background is important.
Yes, I know that sometimes my links are a bit frivolous, just because I get such a kick out of playing with the device. If it will help, I’ll try to be more disciplined about it, and limit the links to the really important stuff. Let me know if you think I need to do that, and I will at least try — but only if y’all will follow the links that remain. This goes both way, you know.
Related Posts
That’s part of the fun of reading and responding to blogs. You can find stuff you missed before, you can get a better idea of how the blogger’s mind works, and you can choose to go there or not, or to click back if the link doesn’t tell you anything new.