Next week the state’s redevelopment agencies are set to go out of existence — forever.  Sure, some other lesser-incarnation of them may return, but if they do, they will be with much less influence, a lot less public funding, and (if I have anything to say about it) property rights protections placed on them so that no longer can eminent domain be used to take someone’s private property against their will so that local politicians can play a scary real version of “Sim City.”

There are a lot of reasons why RDA’s being abolished are a good thing — but this short commentary addresses just one today — which is that for some reason, RDA’s make Republicans act poorly.  In theory, Republicans (whether in local office, or in partisan office) should be united around the principles of freedom, liberty, and the free market.  Yet the entire way that RDA’s do business is counter to all of that.  RDA’s take money using the force of the power of government, accumulate it, and then local government ministers start to spend those tax dollars to warp and influence the economic marketplace, changing the factors of supply and demand so that instead of the free market guiding activities, it is government manipulation.  In every case this leads to a much too inflated roll for government in the process, and it invariably leads to crony capitalism, where politicians pick winners and losers, and in many instances those with financial gain to be had are actually picking (or propping up) the politicians.  Couple up this terrible system with the powers of “taking” so that when some innocent property owner doesn’t want to give up their land for the “greater good” — they just take it from them — a practice which certainly fits into French philosopher Fredric Bastiat’s definition of legal plunder.

Because RDA’s make good people commit evil acts, they are somewhat like the political equivalent of the “one ring” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings.  Like the One Ring, RDA’s will continue to have terrible power and influence until they are destroyed.  In the Lord of the Rings, entire battles are waged and many are killed because man was weak and never had the courage to throw the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom, a volcano, where it would melt into nothing.

Republicans need to have the courage now to let RDA’s be destroyed, even though all of those to have grown dependent on their evil powers will do everything to try and save them (in this case, through legislation to extend their lives).  For too many decades, RDA’s have not only been bad public policy, but they have been bad for the soul of the GOP.

I think shortly after their elimination, much the way the Winkies all celebrated their liberation when the Wicked Witch of the West was killed by Dorothy Gale (if I may mix my metaphors), Republicans who had been involved with RDA’s will realize that we are all better off without them.

(Below is a clip of the destruction of the One Ring at the end of the Lord of the Rings movie, set to the tune of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire, which we dedicate to our friend State Senator Doug LaMalfa).

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 8:45 am and is filed under Blog Posts.