Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Portland, Oregon Mayor, and the Crisis of Liberal Leadership

Liberals by nature want change.

The status quo has to go. The way things are simply are not the way things should be.

If there is one class of people who do not have full rights accorded to them, the government prodded by political activists must get involved and effect change.

Mayor Sam Adams of Portland Oregon (coincidentally enough, named after another firebrand revolutionary), is the first openly gay mayor of a major city in the United States.

He loves the environment, he wants more green buildings, more bike lanes, and he wants the government to keep doing as much as possible for city residents, in spite of massive budget cuts which threaten municipal government's ability to protect the rights and secure the streets of current city dwellers.

It is in his capacity as chief executive where Mayor Adams is facing the greatest strain.

Adams lauded the ground swelling protesters taking over the public square. As a liberal, he is bent on disruptive activism. He feels a strong kinship for their mission of protest for the sake of protest.

But as a grown-up, as an elected official for a cash-strapped community, he must recognize at long last that the long-term temper tantrum must come to an end.

Occupy Wall Street miscreants have brought in their wake disease, deviance, and destruction, and they must be put out before the crime emanating from their camps infects the entire city. If the leader of Portland, Oregon, will not protect all residents, including business leaders and small business owners, on whose revenue the local economy depends, then he has no business being mayor, liberal or conservative.

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