You haven't lived until you've offended an Indianapolis Star reader
Conservatibbs linked my DST post to the Indianapolis Star forum. At least one guy was offended by the so-called blasphemy, the “impeach bush” banner and the tastelessness of the joke. Come on! I have never claimed to be Jonathan Swift, but anyone should be able to see the intended joke on Pat Robertson and my fellow Hoosiers who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into DST.
In the meantime, I am enjoying the page hits.
In the meantime, I am enjoying the page hits.
posted by torporindy at 4/04/2006
10 Comments:
This is somewhat related. I noticed Matt Tully's column in the Star a few days ago that asked, in the wake of the boos the Governor received at the Pacer's game, "why do people hate the Governor so much?" There were 100 comments to his story on the online edition and after reading about 20 I noticed a pattern: "Hoosiers are afraid of change", "...after years of Democratic mismanagement", "Mitch has the courage to do things differently", "this is thinking outside the box" and so on. Then, in my local paper the South Bend Tribune, there was a letter praising Mitch Daniels and his courage to do things differently after years of Democratic mismanagement and Hoosiers do not like him because they are afraid of change. Coincidence or evidence of a talking points memo circulated to Republicans statewide?
Yeah, you're probably onto something. I am sure there was a form letter response for letters to the editor.
I am not a Mitch Daniels' fan, but I do agree one of the reasons for his unpopularity is the Hoosier fear of change.
I think that the root of the problem with DST isn't as much DST itself, but rather that Mitch decided to ramrod through the idea of adopting DST, and then he just left it to the counties and local entities to argue and decide which zone to adopt.
Thus you have counties and populace angry about which zone they are in, and you have a patchwork of counties in soem places, kind of a time line downthe center of the state, of time zones.
if Mitch had just said, "we are going to adopt DST, and the whole state will go easter or central, or said this county will do this, etc." then things would have been OK.
But this is a political time bomb if you advocate for any specific time zone, thus Daniels backed off after dropping the original braod idea of adopting DST.
If Mitch had come out and said, "we are going to adopt DST, and the whole state will go eastern or central, or said this county will do this" then the thing wouldn't have passed. Part of the trick was that DST proponents were deliberately vague on the subject of time zones until the moment they got Troy Woodruff's deciding vote.
I would agree that some folks have a fear of change, but Mitch's rampant need to privatize EVERYTHING is not visionary, it's more pandering to the corporate dollar and his campaign contributors than really coming up with something new. And while some may be knee-jerking because of "rapid change", I give people the benefit of the doubt for understanding the concept of selling them out when they see it.
What really gets me is that people try and play Mitch off of the Democratic leadership of this state, and yet he has doggedly pursued the incredibly BAD idea of building I69, when that was an idea propped up for years by Democratic administrations in this state. So instead of trying something different, he sold our asses down the line to push an idiotic idea that the Dems worked on for years. What was that about "new ideas"? Pfft.
Definitely sounds like a press release talking point and lazy journalism to me...
Coincidence or evidence of a talking points memo circulated to Republicans statewide?
conservatives have been pushing this idea for months, the idea that people who don't like mitch's plans are just country bumpkins who are afraid of change. from what i can tell, rishawn biddle is the leading proponent of this idea.
Just remember, there's no such thing as bad publicity. =)
A friend of mine had an austute comment that I'll paraphrase: why is everyone mad at Mitch when he did exactly what he told everyone he would do?
He campaigned on wanting DST, making government accountable, trying to fix the state's budget, and finding new and innovative ways to fund the government and make it more responsive to the needs of citizens. The people elected Mitch in a landslide. He's done what he campaigned on and everyone is mad at him because of it. WTF?!?!
Upon hearing my friend's comment I had to admit he was correct. Anyone who voted for Mitch Daniels has no reason to be mad at him. He did what he said he would do.
I do not know why people say that Hoosiers are afraid of change. I, for one, will gladly embrace the change in the statehouse in 2006 and in the Governor's office in 2008. I have a feeling that I am not alone, either.
Those will be two changes this hoosier will welcome.
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