From Tracie Sullivan’s article, “Organizers call Western Freedom Festival a success despite controversies”:
“At the beginning of Miller’s conference presentation, he showed a slide on the proper role of government, explaining that despite all the controversy and negative attention surrounding the festival, the goal of the event was not to have a “bash session” about the federal government.”
So let’s clarify something here: is the proper role of government to sponsor a one-sided political event with taxpayers money? Yes? No? Maybe? Let’s say that this event was in a different venue or state altogether and the politics were liberal-leaning and supporting the agenda of a scumbag like George Soros. Would it still be okay?
To me, this Western Freedom Festival is a another example of corporate welfare where our taxpayer money was used to promote the agenda of corporations, not “real” citizens. Sure, there were other things going on there besides politics, but the underlying reason for the Western Freedom Festival wasn’t a music concert and entertainment. That’s just a ploy to get people to show up, much like a time share, before they lock the doors and put the hard sell on you.
In our neck of the woods, it seems the local political operatives know they can say and do just about anything and it will be perceived as morally correct, since they enjoy the “R” next to their names and possibly even church approval. Maybe this carte blanche freedom local politicians have enjoyed for generations is changing, possibly as a direct result of the Iron Co. Commissioners’ poor decisions as of late?
I’m not sure this controversy is over yet, and I’d like to see how the local counties were able to get the taxpayer funding by their legal advisers and see an accounting of all money spent promoting the event, including how many tickets had to be given away just to satisfy the attendance numbers from being an embarrassment.
Ever since the meltdown in the world economies in 2007 and 2008, many of us who are true conservatives have heard and read about our federal government picking winners and losers. From Lehman Brothers, who apparently wasn’t too big to fail, to Goldman Sachs, who apparently was, we’ve seen our federal government play this game, and now when our local government takes a play out of their playbook, it’s seems to be okay and falls on deaf ears.
Really? How is it any different? Here’s a clue: it’s not different, and the political hypocrisy will continue until people see it for what it is and demand it to be stopped.
Jeffrey Hall
Resident, Cedar City, Utah
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