The right usually charges the left with being comprised of paternalistic elitists who think they know better than the rest of us. While it is not clear who "the rest of us" is given the fact that the so-called elitists cannot enact policies without getting elected in our representative democracy (or having the ear of elected politicians who are subject to elections), the right frequently laments the control that this group of leftist intellectuals from the Northeast and West Coast exercises over American politics. Normally I consider this charge to be the product of a paranoid sense of irrational effrontery (see Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays for a fuller account than I am capable of giving); however, I have recently witnessed an elite cabal operating right here in Milwaukee County. The cabal is comprised of members of Milwaukee's business community, most notably those with significant pull in the Greater Milwaukee Committee (whose name itself implies some sort of supra-legislative approbation of power), the Milwaukee County Executive, and local Republican legislators. What does this fine collection of magnates, wealthy scions, and their legislative minions want? They would like to turn the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors into a part-time entity because, in their collective opinion, county government is broken and the only way to fix it is to remove the checks that the elected legislative body exercise against our apparently enlightened philosopher king county executive.
The cabal uses the pretext of arguing that reducing the board to part-time status will save the county money. Since the proposal will lower the county board budget by about 77% this is certainly true. However, the county board budget currently amounts to 0.005% of the total county budget. The proposal would reduce the county board budget to 0.004% of the total county budget. This reduction will have virtually no impact on the county's ability to deliver public services or otherwise balance its budget. To the extent that the cabal suggests the reduction in the county board budget serves the purpose of helping the county deliver public services or otherwise balancing its budget by virtue of the cut itself, the cabal is being disingenuous. Reducing the county board budget will have a profound impact on the ability of the board to act as a legislative check against the unfettered power of the county executive.
One can imagine valid arguments for changing the role of the county board, including whether the supervisors on the board ought to be full-time employees or not. However, the argument the cabal advances is, as noted above, disingenuous. The cabal proposes a referendum that simply asks the voting public if they want to turn the county board supervisor position into a part-time one with a concomitant reduction in the board's budget. Of course this will enjoy overwhelming support because the referendum offers the public the choice of cutting public money without discussing the possible consequences of doing so. I am sure a statewide referendum turning the state assembly and senate offices into part-time ones by reducing their budgets 77% would enjoy overwhelming support as well. This does not mean that saving this money would lead to good government. The problem is that the cabal really does not care about the county board budget. The cabal believes that the son of a magnate from Boston who relocated his life to Milwaukee through happenstance and got himself elected county executive largely through his ability to outspend his opponents knows best what Milwaukee County needs and should be as unhindered in his executive actions as possible by an elected legislative body.
In effect, the cabal has one of their own in office and would like the unfettered, benevolent dictatorship of their philosopher king to begin post haste. Never mind that pesky dispersion of power to a legislative body whose members, elected from smaller, more representative local districts, might have different ideas about how the county ought to develop, allocate, and spend its resources. How can this board comprised of persons who actually resemble their constituents possibly know what is best for the county and the people they represent? Everything about the movement of the cabal is anti-democratic and elitist. The movement presupposes that the members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the Milwaukee County Executive know what is best for the citizens of Milwaukee County better than the citizens do themselves. Perhaps I am being too generous in thinking that the cabal actually cares about what is best for the citizens of Milwaukee County and not solely for what is best for themselves.
Milwaukee County voters should be wary of this movement of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, County Executive Chris Abele, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, and Sen. Alberta Darling (always a dedicated champion of the classes below the upper one). Under the offensive and patently false guise of increasing local control, the movement seeks to remove the power of Milwaukee County's legislative body and centralize it in the County Executive's office. The movement is anti-democratic and elitist. The Greater Milwaukee Committee, the County Executive, Rep. Sanfelippo, and Sen. Darling think they know better than we do as to what is best for Milwaukee County and they have crafted a movement to wrest power from the hand of our elected supervisors so they can put their elitist beliefs and attitudes in action. Personally, I find this paternalism distasteful and this elitism offensive.
For some lame local coverage of this issue:
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/fitzgerald-quick-action-unlikely-on-county-board-pay-referendum-4u8d6uu-186990321.html
See the "related coverage" links for additional historical coverage.
From the horse's mouth:
http://gmconline.org/initiatives/make-it-your-milwaukee-county - notice the benign and benevolent sounding language ...
http://makeityourmilwaukee.com/ - check out the link to Aaron Rodriguez's JS blog, which the Greater Milwaukee Committee does everything in its power to make it seem like an actual piece of journalism reflecting the views of the Journal Sentinel. He's a peach! He also has some incredibly strained metaphors that incite an elitist feeling in me...
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