Fighting the Right Fight: Community over Corporate Welfare

I've given Sibby heck before for fighting the wrong fights. His quixotic charges against secular humanism, one-world Marxism, and Pat Powers drive me all the more crazy because Sibby can be so spot-on right when he turns his attention to the right fight, the battle to protect individual rights and community good from greedy corporations looking to profit off the public dole.

His post today on Mitchell city government and the cowardly credit card company that couldn't afford to move to Mitchell without a government handout is a perfect example of how right Sibby can be. Once he gets past his obligatory Clintonesque Judasification of Pat Powers, he gets to the real, important point: Mitchell Mayor Lou Sebert thinks "consensus" means you keep your mouth shut and let the city do what it wants, even if that means giving away public parkland to a rich corporation. Sibby quotes the mayor from the Mitchell Daily Republic:

Sebert also held that the Park and Rec Board members acted "inappropriately" by stating their individual opinions to the newspaper. It was his understanding, he said, that the board reached a "consensus" that was opposed only by Rubendall and Everson.

"They may be opposed, but they’re part of a committee," Sebert said. "When you’re in a committee like that, you’re a committee. You’re not a citizen" [Seth Tupper, "Hisel on City Controversy: Time to 'Just Move On,'" Mitchell Daily Republic, 2008.03.22].

Sibby then offers this comment:

Wow, political leaders were working out a sweet heart deal behind closed doors, and the expectation was that Park board members are not citizens looking out for the public good, so they were to keep their mouths shut about taxpayer’s property going to a private business. This does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about Mitchell’s city government [Steve Sibson, "The SD GOP Problem Lands in Mitchell," Sibby Online, 2008.03.24].

Posts like that show that Steve is concerned about his community. His advocacy for the Clean and Open Government ballot initiative show he can fight for legislation that will make a practical difference. His past commentary on eminent domain (e.g., here) shows he recognizes the very real threat posed to individual rights by greedy corporations.

It thus drives me all the more nuts when he launches back into his ethereal battles with the chimerical demons of the radical right blogorazzi that leave most South Dakota readers saying, "What?"

Of course, who am I to criticize a guy for flights of fancy and hopeless battles? I still have a Kucinich bumper sticker on my car (and will in 2012! Forward the revolution!).

But Steve! You can be so right when you're not busy being Right. Keep at least one foot on the ground in Mitchell and South Dakota. Focus your fight on secretive government and corporate welfare. It's those pols with their "Anything for a Buck" mentality, not secular humanist academics like me, who are the real threat to our freedom.