Democratic Meltdown by Pesty
After years of what people who aren't "Courthouse Connected" called "good old boy" politics, the "good old boys" (and gals) that inhabit the Clark County Courthouse had great cause to be scared stiff. As the week passed and the 'stun' wore off...some Pols and 'scene watchers' began to consider (as much as they could. Many aren't very deep thinkers and nuance and subltety are beyond them.) But, there was nothing subtle or nuanced about the bitch slap or 2 X4 clobber that hit the Democrats last Tuesday in local elections.
What a world the Clark Democrats have been! They got power firmly in their hands and it had been a gay parade and merry go round as office holders routinely swapped offices. A culture of local patronage grew and blossomed as offices became 'fiefdoms' and the payroll swelled. A person might go into any given office from 1978-2010 and depending on the office, Treasurer, Auditor, Clerk, find apparently dozens of employees apparently 'at work' but, somehow, none who could take care of your problem other than telling you that "Oh you need to take that (problem) to the Recorder (Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor..whatever).
Meanwhile, the Court's became overwhelmed as the Criminal Justice section of the Courts became the de facto Emergency Room for "Societal Problems". The great thing about a societal problem is that, left attended long enough and it will eventually ripen...then it will Rot and then it becomes a CRIME. Then the police have something to do. They can arrest the 'problem' and throw it in jail, take it to court and then entence it. It's a solution ...of sorts. It's called flushing the problem down the 'socially acceptable' toilet.
But, this sort of societal 'solution' has its own price. You could see the strain on the system when they decided that they needed ARMED GUARDS to confront the unwashed who came to the courthouse to get a deed, solve a problem or PAY TAXES. You knew there was a problem when they installed one of these....
(This is a good replica of our security gate...but alas...no Starbucks at our Courthouse!)
Granny needed to be Magneto Scanned if she wanted to pay her property taxes. After all she just might be packing. This is just ONE of the physical signs and manifestations of the GAP between the Courthouse Mind and the mind of the REGULAR GUY AND GAL. But...there were (are) others.
One that I like to think about is the "Jail". Once upon a time, the Jail was just a lock up for our locals riff raff and the occasional serious criminal. But, during the 80s and Early 90's when "every criminal is a serious criminal" and we really needed a big toilet to flush all the stuff we had not been able to digest as a community,
Clark County (mostly Dems) authorized the construction of a "New Jail" (now affectionally known as the ichael Becher Community Correctional Facility) take a look...here is the Courthouse ...something to serve us and solve problems...
Now, take a look at the jail
and we got our own RIOT POLICE!! 
(And believe me ...my photo of the jail does NOT do it justice....in fact the jail is larger than the Courthouse.)
But, hey...throwing people in jail has always been a popular solution. The good part was that the pols involved got to spend a LOT of money building these monstrosities. Spending money means a big budget and lots of power and influence. Its all good! Except...when you spend like this and the costs of it start coming home to roost amongst the property owners via taxes and there are ludicrous wastes of every sort AND top that off by the fact that IF a citizen gets fed up and has the nerve and goes down to the Courthouse. If he goes down to 'talk to somebody'...he discovers that first he must pass through a security station...face armed guards. Then when actually manages to 'get on the agenda' he gets two or three minutes to speak his mind.
He gets (if he is lucky) polite nods and condescending comments from the politicos he voted for. He leaves
with the distinct feeling ...They THINK I AM A FOOL.
So...let this happen long enough...long enough and to enough people and what do you get?
You get November 2, 2010.
What a world the Clark Democrats have been! They got power firmly in their hands and it had been a gay parade and merry go round as office holders routinely swapped offices. A culture of local patronage grew and blossomed as offices became 'fiefdoms' and the payroll swelled. A person might go into any given office from 1978-2010 and depending on the office, Treasurer, Auditor, Clerk, find apparently dozens of employees apparently 'at work' but, somehow, none who could take care of your problem other than telling you that "Oh you need to take that (problem) to the Recorder (Auditor, Treasurer, Assessor..whatever).
Meanwhile, the Court's became overwhelmed as the Criminal Justice section of the Courts became the de facto Emergency Room for "Societal Problems". The great thing about a societal problem is that, left attended long enough and it will eventually ripen...then it will Rot and then it becomes a CRIME. Then the police have something to do. They can arrest the 'problem' and throw it in jail, take it to court and then entence it. It's a solution ...of sorts. It's called flushing the problem down the 'socially acceptable' toilet.
But, this sort of societal 'solution' has its own price. You could see the strain on the system when they decided that they needed ARMED GUARDS to confront the unwashed who came to the courthouse to get a deed, solve a problem or PAY TAXES. You knew there was a problem when they installed one of these....
(This is a good replica of our security gate...but alas...no Starbucks at our Courthouse!)
Granny needed to be Magneto Scanned if she wanted to pay her property taxes. After all she just might be packing. This is just ONE of the physical signs and manifestations of the GAP between the Courthouse Mind and the mind of the REGULAR GUY AND GAL. But...there were (are) others.
One that I like to think about is the "Jail". Once upon a time, the Jail was just a lock up for our locals riff raff and the occasional serious criminal. But, during the 80s and Early 90's when "every criminal is a serious criminal" and we really needed a big toilet to flush all the stuff we had not been able to digest as a community,
Clark County (mostly Dems) authorized the construction of a "New Jail" (now affectionally known as the ichael Becher Community Correctional Facility) take a look...here is the Courthouse ...something to serve us and solve problems...
Now, take a look at the jail
and we got our own RIOT POLICE!! (And believe me ...my photo of the jail does NOT do it justice....in fact the jail is larger than the Courthouse.)But, hey...throwing people in jail has always been a popular solution. The good part was that the pols involved got to spend a LOT of money building these monstrosities. Spending money means a big budget and lots of power and influence. Its all good! Except...when you spend like this and the costs of it start coming home to roost amongst the property owners via taxes and there are ludicrous wastes of every sort AND top that off by the fact that IF a citizen gets fed up and has the nerve and goes down to the Courthouse. If he goes down to 'talk to somebody'...he discovers that first he must pass through a security station...face armed guards. Then when actually manages to 'get on the agenda' he gets two or three minutes to speak his mind.
He gets (if he is lucky) polite nods and condescending comments from the politicos he voted for. He leaves
with the distinct feeling ...They THINK I AM A FOOL.
So...let this happen long enough...long enough and to enough people and what do you get?
You get November 2, 2010.
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