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An aggrieved electorate must lead the way

Another shot heard round the world

Date published: 3/12/2008

AN OLD CHINESE prov- erb says, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." This seems to have become the commonwealth of Virginia's transportation policy.

Politicians in Virginia must develop a comprehensive plan that establishes what they are trying to accomplish, arranges priorities, and sets timetables for measurable results. And this must be done before they allocate the next round of tens of billions of dollars for transportation projects.

The full implications of the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to upend the most repellent aspects of the controversial transportation plan have not been fully appreciated by either the media or the elected officials scrambling for a quick fix to preserve reputations and the piles of money the law would lay in their laps. Seen by many as nothing more than a procedural blip on the road to higher taxes, it is, most likely, the second or third skirmish in a New American Revolution where an aggrieved electorate rises up to deter and defeat out-of-touch politicians grown comfortable serving as shopkeepers for the business community and local government bureaucrats.

new revolution

How fitting it is that the New American Revolution is getting under way in the commonwealth of Virginia--which as a colony more than two centuries ago played a pivotal role in shaping the debate in favor of revolution, defining the grievances, and crafting the solutions that allowed our ancestors to be free of an oppressive and incompetent governing elite.

Perhaps Virginia's Lexington Green was the suit filed by a citizen in Roanoke charging two state senators with ethical lapses in their efforts to obstruct the restoration of individual property rights. Though unsuccessful, the suit so frightened the pols that the protections they had once refused were rushed into law. Virginia's Concord may have been last November's election when many of those responsible were flushed from office, and Republican influence over state policies diminished.

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Date published: 3/12/2008

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