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A great fallacy on crack, meth, and painkiller addiction is that recovery is challenging but routine. A more honest analysis of long-term treatment outcomes reveals that few hard drug addicts find a durable path to normality. Legalization fantasies remix the distribution network – not the soul robbing certainties of hard drug use.
Asheville is a happy hunting ground for social predators. Many feed off a drug culture busily recruiting our young. This is an example of a real community problem versus political theater masquerading as such.
Appraisal of priorities cited by most local political candidates mirror the “I want to end world hunger” mutterings at a Ms. America Pageant.
Asheville’s left-leaning majority loves to hear about sidewalks, mass transit, the environment, education, “good” jobs, and affordable housing. The majority of our aspirants thus function as appeasement contestants in a liberal beauty contest.
Our road system is laced with paved cow trails. Density and topography make sidewalk elaborations expensive and unrealistic. Those same factors contribute to an extraordinarily subsidized mass transit system costing taxpayers twice as much as a few years back but still running mostly once an hour.
Local government has very limited environmental influence beyond spending other people’s money for expensive green technologies that feel better than they work. Same deal with education. The control is in Washington and Raleigh. Local authority is ceremonial.
Most of what government does on jobs creation is grow itself. Remember the hype on biotech, city recruitment of the “creative class”, and green jobs ‘ala bankrupt Solyndra? None got off the ground, but Asheville’s “anyway you like it” public policies created lots of jobs around beer, lifestyle illness, and addiction recovery.
As for affordable housing, high taxes, hyper-regulation, elitism, and socialistic public policies assure failure.
The conservative view on Asheville’s priority issues center on safety and opportunity. A city where the law is enforced enthusiastically, fairly, and consistently offers a secure foundation. Good schools, thriving downtowns, tourism, and healthy communities develop only where people feel safe.
Asheville is blessed with natural draws. With attracted visitors, investors, and entrepreneurial employers come jobs, growth, and other opportunities for learning, building, creating, and carrying our own weight. Government helps best by keeping taxes low, roads good, and the city clean and safe – period.
America’s elections are run like beauty pageants. We thus choose the appeasement queens we deserve, not the principled leaders we need…
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