The spring elections for Madison City Council are coming up April 5th and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz made an unexpected decision to endorse a slate of candidates. The Mayor Cieslewicz Endorsements are interesting primarily because his decision to side with individuals prior to an election shows how serious and “hardball” politics is becoming at the city level.
Madison’s municipal government is currently governed by elected officials that fervently believe political ideologies transcending administration of a medium sized city. The elected official mix contains at least three groups of politicians describable as COWS, Progressives and Greens. All three groups are deadly serious about using whatever government power they can procure to advance their ideology based social agendas.
Notably absent from the Mayors list is any comment about the District 8 race between challenger Kami Eshraghi and incumbent Austin King, who is the most unapologetically Extreme Leftist on the Council. King’s core belief and value system is apparent his admission that he is Alderman Austin King Oil Addict. Kami Eshraghi should question why Austin King believes the oil based American economy is equivalent to alcoholism. As a hypocrisy check, it should also be determined if King has an active driver’s license.
The Oil Addicts Anonymous Group is one of many activities supported by the Rainforest Action Network founded by Randy Hayes. The choice of Madison, Wisconsin for the initial chapter may be due to this town’s concentration of true believers in the Rainforest Action Network Philosophy. The philosophy is derived from the realization that socialism and communism have failed globally, and it is an attempt at a new alternative to capitalism that depends entirely on creating the belief that human activity is killing nature.
Capitalism, as the economic system’s number one rising star, has achieved dominance over other systems such as socialism or communism. It has also become more urgently problematic. The current model of capitalism, expanded greatly by the frenzy of “freetrade” economic globalization, is an absurd economic system rapidly destroying nature, cultural diversity, and decent local life.
We should remember that there is no social equity on a dead planet. There are no economic developments or jobs on a dead planet. There is no stable social order on a dead planet.
The Austin King philosophy of government is that capitalism is bad because it is killing nature, and nature can be killed because nature is both fragile and interdependent. As humans cause extinction it creates holes within the web of life which will eventually cause the web of life to collapse. Once nature dies, of course, the result is a dead planet with no living wage jobs within walking distance of a just society.
The flaws in this reasoning will require greater explanation, but the key point is that nature in entirety can not be simultaneously vibrant and resilient, while being fragile and weak. Austin really needs to take a drive into the country and look at the world as it exists. Madison is a dynamic city with a good quality of life, largely because tax revenue from the entire state is funneled into this government town. Madison is, however, growing into a more economically diverse city, and the serious issues faced by this community deserve elected officials who do not hate and fear the society outside their residential bubble.
The flaws in this reasoning will require greater explanation, but the key point is that nature in entirety can not be simultaneously vibrant and resilient, while being fragile and weak. Austin really needs to take a drive into the country and look at the world as it exists. Madison is a dynamic city with a good quality of life, largely because tax revenue from the entire state is funneled into this government town. Madison is, however, growing into a more economically diverse city, and the serious issues faced by this community deserve elected officials who do not hate and fear the society outside their residential bubble.
