It's frustrating in Cincinnati, well, ok, everywhere how people use terms like conservative, liberal, progressive, etc & conflate Republican with conservative Democrat with liberal.
I remember reading the Fishwarp over at Marge & Les' house in sylvan Mt Auburn about 30 years ago - a noob to the Queen City. I read a story of moralist douche bags forcing their agenda down everybody's throats in some unholy marriage of business & government. I expressed my disappointment and Marge told me, "Yes, Quimbob, Cincinnati is a very conservative town."
"NO!", I retorted, "This isn't conservative. This is fascist!"
Marge chuckled an my naivete.
Dumb ol' broad - still, my introduction to Porktown politics
Anyway, the Cincinnati streetcar turned into a political issue lining up the Republicans & conservatives against the liberals, progressives & divided the Democrats. Why? good question.
In
an article over at The American Conservative they bring up:
Trying to divine the reasons why the new mayor so abhorred the streetcar might be a fool’s errand.
Streetcars can and do foster and bind cohesive neighborhoods in ways that buses simply cannot. We conservatives look kindly on streetcars for these very reasons.
The fact is that the local political parties are more like self enriching gangs than representative organizations trying to better the community. To a great extent they actually feed off of one another like a pair of Yin Yahg parasites. Add in self serving entities like CO , the NA CP, the TEA Baggers with their chest beating & fear mongering and you have a potent stew when it comes to things like the Cincinnati streetcar.
But it's got nothing to do with conservative or liberal.
Is it conservative? Sure it helps build community. Is it socialist? Sure it's a public enterprise. Is it liberal? Sure, users will have to be somewhat accepting of their neighbors. Is it progressive? Sorta. I guess. Elitist? huh?
The American Conservative is Pat Buchanan's baby and has replaced Bill Buckley's National Review as the publication of the traditional conservative American as Bill Kristol has handed over the National Review to the radical neocons, teabaggers & Birchers. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I imagine Buckley is going to make a beeline to Kristol's place.
I'm guessing most of the people claiming to be conservative in Cincinnati today are really more along the lines of George Wallace Democrats than anything else. A lot of the 'progressive' streetcar supporters I have seen are probably more along the lines of Nixon & Eisenhower Republicans & some of 'em are hardcore capitalists.
The streetcar was never a political issue & the only reason it became one was because self serving groups who saw it's intention as a threat to their own self interests knew they could game the political process to their advantage.
Whatever, maybe they can keep the streetcar running on time.
