Calling All Hands!

The Republican Party has calculated that the star power of Governor Mitch Daniels is greater than any unhappiness caused the people of the Geist are by the all-Republican Fishers Town Council. Thus, Daniels will appear at the Bella Vita Restaurant in Geist, for a fundraiser. The event takes place Thursday, at 5:00pm.

The Geist United Opposition is staging a freedom rally outside the Bella Vita. From a press release circulated by the Opposition:

As many of you know, the Fishers Town Council, the group behind the forced annexation of Geist, is made up entirely of Republicans. The Hamilton County Republican Party (HCRP) gives money to the members of the Town Council to help keep them in office. Due to this fact, many Geist residents are reconsidering giving to the HCRP this year. Also, the chairman of the HCRP is on the Fishers Town Council.

The HCRP is hosting a fundraiser at Bella Vita at 5:00 pm this Thursday, January 26th. Geist residents opposed to annexation are being asked to gather along the sidewalk with signs (which will be provided) to display Geist residents' discontent with the Fishers Town Council. The hope is that if enough powerful, elected Hamilton County Republicans see a large gathering, they might be able to influence the few people on the Town Council to rethink this forced annexation attempt. Right or wrong, money speaks, and Hamilton County Republicans are well aware that there are some generous contributors in this area. Our elected officials need to know that they shouldn't take this area's support for granted.

I urge all Libertarians to go to Bella Vita to show our support to the people of Geist. The Republican Party has shown the people of Geist only contempt. Libertarians have, and will, only show support for their right to self-determination and for their property rights. Libertarians should have something that clearly identifies them as Libertarians (a lapel pin or sign), so that the Geist property owners can see our support.

(Unfortunately, I will probably not be able to attend, as my return flight is scheduled to touch down at 5:25pm. I will pray for a temporary reversal of the jet stream!)

The fundraiser is really audacious. It´s an enormous insult to the Geist property owners for the Republicans to at once try to force them into Fishers to steal tax dollars from them, and then to try to make them overlook it with the presence of the Governor. Price tag? $400 per plate. That´s a double expensive slap in the face.

I think it will backfire badly on them. They would have been smarter to offer something the Geist property owners actually want, like a reduction in taxes or abandoning the forced annexation. Instead, the Republican Party shows up with their hands out for donations. That they expect to be rewarded for putting the screws to the people of Geist speaks to how incredibly out of touch County Chair Charlie White and the Republican Party is.

Because the Republican Party is making the lives of the people of Geist harder, so it is important that they let the GOP know that they will withhold their support from them unless and until they return to policies that are in line with the fiscal conservatism now only espoused by Libertarians. That needs to happen after the rally, so the GOP can see it is a serious threat. Ideology like fiscal conservatism and property rights obviously means nothing to Republicans any more, but I have no doubt they will understand it when their financial support dries up. It´s probably the only thing that will change them.

Hopefully, the people of Geist are beginning to see that Charlie White and the GOP merely see the people of Geist as an ATM that he can run to and cash in, without ever returning anything of value to them. I think they are beginning to see that the Libertarian Party is the only option left to them.