By Scott Tibbs, October 3, 2016
"Three evenings of listening to (mostly) the rants of the developers, farmers-who-wanna-be developers, realtors, and Republicans etc. to watching 15 hours of Fixed Noise (ie Fox News.)" -- County Commissioner Julie Thomas, Democrat.
It seems that everyone is focused on the Presidential election, but the real action is the down-ballot races. The closer government is to the people, the more your vote matters - and the more directly government impacts your life. One of the ways it matters most is land use policy, also known as planning and zoning. Can you subdivide your property? Can you modify the exterior of your home? Will the local officials who decide for you what you may and may not do with your property take you seriously if you show up to speak on their policy?
For Julie Thomas, we know the answer to the last question is an emphatic "NO!"
Thomas' attitude is nothing new, of course. One Democrat who serves as a township trustee shamelessly equated people concerned about property rights to slave owners who did not want to lose the human beings they "owned" - an incredibly offensive and racist statement equating a human being made in the image of God to a plot of land. It is bad enough when animal rights extremists equate humans with animals, but this Democrat was equating black people with inanimate dirt.
Thomas may not have thought her little rant in the comments of another elected official's blog would have attracted attention, but it did. Thomas exposed what she really thinks of the constituents who pay her salary and have elected her to public office twice. She simply does not care what you think - she just wants you to obey her pronouncements about what you are allowed to do with your property.
This November, we have the opportunity to tell Julie Thomas that this attitude is not acceptable. We have the opportunity to tell her that those who dismiss their constituents will no longer be representing those constituents. We have the opportunity to tell her that she represents us, but does not rule over us. We can do that by voting for Nelson Shaffer for Monroe County Commissioner.
