By Mike Thayer
Rod "F*&^ You!" Sullivan is a Johnson County Supervisor seeking re-election.
The man needs to be voted out of office, the county will be the better for it. If you need examples, read the following history:
http://coralvillecourier.typepad.com/community/why-you-shouldnt-re-elect-rod-sullivan/
I've been following this guy's career since he told me via email to burn a cross in my own front yard, back when he was the Chairman of the Johnson County Democratic Central Committee. You see, I had challenged the nonsense he wrote in a letter to the editor submitted to the Iowa City DePressed Citizen. His letter claimed the new press box proposal for Kinnick stadium was about the haves and have nots, a black and white thing. My challenge, my opposing point of view was in a letter to the editor, responding to his. At the time I couldn't believe he went where he did with his email to me. Looking back and knowing what I know now, his response isn't really so surprising.
The man is a Johnson County Supervisor and his history with me is not an isolated incident nor exclusive. How he treats constituents who disagree with him is an embarrasment to the community, without honor and highly unprofessional.
That's his dealing with the general public mindset, now for how he deals with government.
But before I get into Rod's government mindset, let me first give you the mindset of our Founding Fathers.
If you have a problem, first try to address it yourself. If you can't fix the problem, ask your family for help. If your immediate family can't help, turn to relatives, perhaps a good neighbor. If that doesn't work, go to your church. If the problem still persists try your local community, a charity, seek non-profit help, maybe the free market has a solution. Heck, if that fails, maybe help can be found the next town over. If that doesn't work, then yes, consider government help, but it's a LAST resort. Our Founding Fathers believed not only in personal responsibility and achievement, but in solving problems at the lowest possible level. It's common sense.
Here is Rod Sullivan's mindset: Go to the government first.
It's true, look at his record.
- Flood recovery - buy up property
- Passed a human rights ordinance - not questioning the need, but creating a government body, government rules and red tape
- Passed a sensitive areas ordinance - not insisting a land use plan be more effective, but creating more paper, more rules, more red tape
- Signed on to the Sierra Club Cool Counties Initiative - taking the validity of the initiative at face value, more paper, more rules, more red tape created over human caused global warming nonsense with no tangible positive result in sight and at what financial cost?
- Passed the Conservation Bond initiative - Using taxpayer money to buy up property in the name of conserving green space
- Created a trails committee and a line item for trails in the budget - another government body, additional expense, additional requests for taxpayer money, as if we don't have more pressing needs
- Created a commission for a livable community for seniors - another government body, more government expense, additional requests for taxpayer money when the solutions already exist in the community at large
- Instituted an earned income tax program - another layer of government, gov. oversight, paperwork, red tape
- Increased funding for Shelter House - government giving taxpayer money to a non-profit, a contradiction of why a non-profit even exists, a contradiction to the concept of volunteering time, money and effort
- Begun a program for upgrading gravel roads to chip seal - it has taken Sullivan's vision of government more than eight years to get this started
Where are the mentions of free market, non-profit, community, church, family solutions in Sullivan's record? There are none. Why? Because he doesn't pursue those types of solutions.
That's not good governance.
A true leader looks for alternative solutions, educates, points individuals in the right direction, unifies people. He doesn't put a spotlight on a sign that reads: "Government assistance."
The mindset of a liberal like Rod Sullivan does not produce good government, it produces slow, intrusive, obstacle-ridden government that gets in the way of creating and achieving. Sullivan's beliefs and actions are an insult to what our Founding Fathers gave us. They gave us tools, tools that liberals refuse to use or have forgotten how to use. If Rod Sullivan would use the progression of problem solving that our Founding Fathers outlined, our quality of life would be far better than it is now. What Sullivan advocates, results in individuals that are weaker, not stronger, neighborhoods and communities that are detached, not connected.
That addresses Sullivan's government mindset, I don't believe even the Founding Fathers could help him with the other.
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