I'd vote for that...

I was delighted to learn this week that the Palladium-Item had endorsed Matt Hisrich for the Richmond Common Council. While it's not the first time the Pal-Item has endorsed a Libertarian, it is a rare enough occurrence to warrant at least some local attention. While Matt is clearly the more qualified candidate in the race, he does face the problem of running as a third party candidate in a gerry-mandered district where the Democrat incumbent hasn't faced an opponent for 16 years.

Being somewhat of a political junkie, I attended a candidate forum in Richmond a couple of weeks ago where all candidates for the council races were given the opportunity to express their opinions on why they were qualified to serve on the council. I think all agreed that Richmond needed more jobs. But then I don't suppose there is anyplace these days that doesn't need more jobs. One candidate thought things would get better if the Greyhound Bus stopped in Richmond again. I'm not sure if he wanted the bus to bring people in or take people out.

I also couldn't help but notice that many the candidates had adopted the buzz phrase "economy of scale", the practice of buying in bulk to achieve a lower per unit cost.

They seemed to be of the opinion that if enough governmental departments join together and buy toilet paper in bulk, somehow all of the departments will become affordable.

I was happy to hear Mr. Hisrich suggest that we need to have an honest evaluation on the proper and necessary role of government in Richmond. That's something the other political parties seem to have forgotten.

We'll be a lot better if we work to make big government smaller, instead of trying to make big government affordable. Less government means lower taxes, and lower taxes means more jobs.

And less paperwork.