The Infection that is Liberalism

Liberalism is like a disease manifesting itself into our small rural Colorado community. Although our town and county still leans conservative, the many liberals retiring from Denver and Boulder into our community are making a huge impact.

In the six years since I have lived here our sales tax and property taxes have increased several times during rough economic conditions. One reason our sales tax was increased was to improve our roads. Since this time there has been little improvement in our roads. In fact, in the winter the town refuses to plow the roads and they are skating rink. To improve roads and save money one would think snow removal would be a key ingredient to maintaining road conditions. Since the town refuses to plow them the constant freezing and thawing of the ice creates cracks and pot holes that usually go years before they are fixed. This makes no sense that taxpayers are paying more money for improved roads, but snow removal is not part of that plan. Ironically, residents can be fined if they do not shovel their walks and driveways! This is liberalism at its best – it is where the government does nothing and places the burden on the taxpayers. A good example of this is the IRS. If I call the IRS for tax help and they give me the wrong advice I am still liable for fines and imprisonment – that is liberalism.

In the past two decades the population in our county has increased 50% but the number of county and city vehicles has gone up by over 1000%. There are 9 police cars instead of one, but that does not mean the streets are patrolled any more frequently. I see a police car patrol our streets maybe once every couple of weeks.

The town pays to put one tree in new residential yards and talk about a bureaucratic process. The bylaws for this are 30 pages long and it took 4 city workers came to our house to place a stake in the yard where the tree would go. It took 8 city employees to plant the tree along with one tractor and 2 other city vehicles.

This is the result of liberalism. Many businesses refuse to come to our town because the city rules, regulations, and mandates are just too demanding and business unfriendly. For instances, new businesses are required to have a paved parking lot even though the current address and neighboring businesses have a gravel parking lot. New businesses have to have a certain number of trees per square foot even if neighboring businesses are grandfathered and do not have to comply with new laws. These are huge expenses for a new business and for some reason our town wants to punish and nickel and dime any new businesses to death. This is what happens when liberalism infects your town – more taxes, fewer results, more government employees, and more rules, regulations and mandates.