Good ole boy Affirmative Defenses or, "Everything you need to know

[The Backlash Cometh]

about your city government or homeowner's Association if you live in a Republican County."

What follows are common responses and reactions I've encountered when dealing with city government or my local homeowner's Association. Living in a Republican County, you learn quickly that positions of authority are treated differently, than any where else in America. Here are some examples:

The Gomer Defense.
(1) "Well, Golly, the water looked like it could run uphill on the plans."
(2) "Well, Golly, we know the elevations of the 100 year plan were breached with that last development, but it's not our responsibility to tell FEMA."
For (1) and (2), they're not really stupid, just pretending to be.
and;
(3) "We didn't have time to post for a legal meeting, so we had an illegal one."

The Submissive Pose.
(1) "Yes, I did it, but I have six kids to put through college."
(2) "Yes, I did it, but I have to pay for my wife's operation."

The Democracy Earned Defense. (This one is my favorite.)
"You voted for us as your board so we can do whatever we want to do and there's nothing you can do to stop us." (And if you live in a really screwed up Republican County, they're right.)

The Chuck Stuart Preemptive Strike.
If you have evidence that your board is corrupt, like attempting adverse possessions, don't bother talking to the neighbors. Chances are the board has already spoken to everyone before they moved in and told them that you were guilty of whatever it was they were doing. And if you're darker-skinned than everybody else in the neighborhood, you're really screwed. For a good test to see if you've been victimized, go into your backyard with hammer, nail and a board and start pounding. If someone you've never seen before, and who has no business being there, pops up in your backyard within ten minutes, chances are, they're talking about you.

[Blue_Tires]

1. wow....

reminds me of some small-town councils i used to cover for a newspaper...(epsecially the Democracy Earned Defense)

ironically, some of the most power hungry, brutal, despotic, totalitarian, make-up-the-rules-as-we-go-along fascists i've ever had the displeasure to meet were mayors or council members of towns of less than 1,000!

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Thanks for posting.

The key here, is that this is a prominent Republican county, not a small yokel town. What you saw developing in 2000 on a national level, I got to see the roots of it develop at the local level four years earlier. And I pick that time frame, only because that's when circumstances forced me to see what wasn't so obvious before.

[Blue_Tires]

3. i see your point

actually the towns i was talking about were in a major county bordering a major metro area...I didn't want to mention the state (COUGH*COUGH*maryland*COUGH*COUGH)...

but i was surprised to see how dirty and vindictive politics on even the smallest scales had become (and do NOT get me started on the student elections i witnessed in college!)

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Those college elections seem to be a training ground for the GOP.

[Blue_Tires]

7. just a taste

this was just a few years ago when i was in grad school (large-sized state univ.)

the school paper i was working for (winning awards year in and year out for highest journalism standards) was about to shine some harsh light on the rich frat-boy candidate (evidently he had a police record for beating up his girlfriend back in his hometown)...

So naturally, this mental cripple and his minions woke up early the next morning, went to the plant where our paper was printed and stacked for distribution, and actually tried to STEAL ALL THE COPIES! They ended up stealing about 2,000 of a total 10,000, and throwing them in dumpsters and a lake...Nevermind the fact that short of arson, you can't just make 10,000 papers disappear--nevermind the fact that the story he wanted to squelch so bad was already printed on our website for all to see--nevermind the fact that our paper was already stacked in different locations in town for circulation! the only part more insane was the number of people that actually supported him doing this!

Legally, he only got a slap on the wrist (just destruction of property, and not theft) but luckily he lost the race

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Very, very sloppy on their part.

They're usually more discreet.

I was an election pollworker two years ago and I got to talking to a poll watcher who claimed she was a Libertarian. As the day went on, she went from skeptical to relaxing because everything she witnessed seemed to favor Republican voters. Not hard to happen in a precinct that is about 60% Republicans. The odds are in their favor. But she was so relaxed that she confided in me that her son was a member of the young College Republicans and they were far more organized than the Democrats. I went home that day, and, as things tend to do when someone plants an idea in your head, I suddenly became aware every time College Republicans made news in the newspaper. All the articles involved shenanigans in which they were caught going over the edge of ethics. I wondered why these students were allowed to graduate, if they were caught in such obvious wrong-doing. The fact that they aren't given stiff sentences sends a signals to them, telling the kids that those who are willing to cross the line of ethics will succeed in our country, especially if they're members of the Republican party.

[maine_raptor]

5. Oh, Hell, Yes

I used to be on the local town council (pop: 6,000). The good ol' boy network is alive n' well in small town America. Oh once in a while we'll get a maverick or two on the council or a board, but by in large, it's the prominent families and their cronies that run things.

'Bout the only "stranger" that walks on my property when I start in a hammerin', is the Code Enforcement Officer lookin' to see if I need a building permit.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Our PF's (prominent families) work under the radar.

I'd call them clans, more than families. You might have one relative working as a development engineer, while another one is entrenched as a city attorney; a partner involved with wetlands; and the whole lawfirm is steep in real estate development. Well, it's a consigliere clan. The people owning the lands are their customers. Dirty business how they confuse the public because their positions in the community are traditionally pro-public advocates. Except, the only advice they have to administer to the public is, it's a "Done Deal." Good work if you can find it.

As for strangers walking in my backyard, it was very obvious that the people who were attempting the adverse possessions were deflecting attention to my activities. Just the other day I was sawing a rather obstinate palmetto and my corrupt neighbor came by just to take a look. He's done it many times before. I've had a neighbor get his grandchild to stand on a wall when I was working on an existing flower bed, I've had another neighbor come to collect his pet, which escaped from his yard, and though we engaged in a friendly conversation, twenty minutes after he left, the son of the owner of the vacant lot next to me came to check on his property. There was a makeshift soccer goal which had been on the tree'd lot for years -- this is something that the owner knew and approved of -- but the neighbor retrieving his pet would not have been aware of the arrangement, however, seeing the soccer goal when he entered my yard he must have decided I had built something on the property to adversely possess it, so he called the owner. The owner's son came to check up on it, and left in embarrassment when my dog caught him sneaking up. I think he knew at that point that it wouldn't be too difficult for me to connect that I had been a target of the Chuck Stuart pre-emptive strike.

And people wonder why I avoid my neighbors.