Sonny do, Sonny don't
Rome News-Tribune
Posted 10-16-06

THE INABILITY of voters to see their politicians as offering only a very bad ventriloquist act appears to be what leads to their re-election. The incredible inconsistencies in their public positions should evoke jokes about which one — the candidate or the officeholder — is the blockhead.

Take, for example, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s recent announcement that the state will henceforth send a note home to parents every time their teenage drivers get a speeding ticket. Not necessarily a bad idea in itself, although it smacks a bit too much like more of this “government as your big daddy” stuff that appears to increasingly dominate legislative concerns. Is there anything government doesn’t plan to stick its nose into?

Yet, in announcing this new initiative Perdue himself admitted its redundancy ... and nobody chuckled.

“Parents often never know when their child has received a traffic citation until insurance premiums increase or when their child’s driver’s license has been suspended.” So, parents do already find out, don’t they? Government just wants to play the role of nosy neighbor who knows how to run your family better than you do. Again.

INTERESTINGLY, this is the same government unable to stop minors from buying liquor or tobacco, getting pregnant or dropping out of school despite all its laws and policies about such matters. And the same government that comes after the parent, not the child, when they drive without insurance or are truant.

Moreover, this same governor now so eager to tell tales is the leader of a political party that is all gung-ho about keeping secret from the very same people the governmental giveaways of the public treasury used to woo and win big-business investment.

Isn’t that sort of like the head household bragging to the family about mowing the lawn and not telling them he just sold the house out from under them?

Mostly what this new tattletale “policy” shows is the power of incumbency when a governor is running for re-election. It’s cute and catchy, like Perdue’s “Sonny Do” list gimmick in his TV ads. Given his huge advantage in campaign contributions, he knows his opponent can’t counter with a “Sonny Didn’t” list although it might actually be longer.

Let’s face it: Perdue trades on being charming and a nice guy more than on being a chief executive. In a race with an opponent who has a reputation for not always being very nice in political in-fighting — and getting a lot accomplished that way — that’s not really a fair matchup in what’s increasingly become a beauty contest instead of a talent show.

IF THE GOVERNOR (and his opponent) wish to render a real public service regarding something far more important, how’s about a public promise not to help rogue bureaucrats speed off with the public purse? If parents need to know, then doesn’t everybody about matters that concern them?

Consider the hilarity of having a constitutional amendment being offered to voters to keep “unelected boards” from taking private property while the House leadership, in particular, wants the very same “unelected boards” to be able to recruit industries without the public knowing what tax-giveaway incentives they are offering. Despite what some politicians think, tax money is your property, too.

The GOP House leadership, and its beat-the-people-into-submission ringmaster, House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, run their operation by shutting off debate and discussion, unleashing “hawks” to stack committee votes and similar. They’d apparently like the whole state to be run that way and it is no secret they’re preparing to bring back the core elements of House Bill 218, probably disguised and submerged in some sort of omnibus economic development measure.

Those secrecy elements were ultimately defeated in 2005 by a public outcry for which Republicans still blame the media. Why? Because the press told the people what was going on, the very thing this bunch seems to particularly dislike.

JUST TO JOG memories, that measure would have allowed economic development boards to let companies build factories about which taxpayers wouldn’t know until the deed/deal was done ... and toward which those same taxpayers would doubtless contribute taxes. That’s apparently still what the House leaders desire.

Perdue also apparently favors this approach, even while being on record as saying: “We have always sold Georgia. We have not tried to buy business.” Indeed, didn’t he land the new Kia plant without any of this hush-hush backroom stuff some of his Republican cronies are pushing? And doesn’t the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor adamantly oppose such secrecy? This sure does make Republicans look like a most unfunny ventriloquist act in which, no matter whose lips are moving, don’t believe them.

Promising to veto any such efforts to keep the public in the dark is something both Perdue, and his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, need to put on their “will do” list — and advertise the same. Come to think it, where do the candidates for Rome’s House seat stand on this question, given both have no “track record” of past votes on state issues by which to judge them?

THE ARGUMENT of the stop-the-sunshine crowd that voters could always later boot from office those responsible is a lot like telling parents about the ticket their teens got. Doesn’t tear up the ticket, does it? The damage would be done; the factory would be on the other side of your back yard fence.

That increasing numbers of representatives of the people, in what is indeed a representative democracy, don’t want the people to know what they are up to should be deeply disturbing to all, of any political party persuasion. Remember the old saying, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us?” Well, if legislators and governors aren’t with the people, then they’re against them. When it comes to casting votes for governor, state senator or representative that now has become the most-important thing to ascertain.

How’s a representative democracy supposed to function if the only group that isn’t represented is the people — and they’re not even allowed to know they’re not being represented?