I was expecting a close vote for Proposition A last night, more in line with the slight defeat in 2008, so I was pretty excited to hear about the huge 63% to 37% victory for mass transit for the region. This is a big win for the metropolitan area, but it made me start thinking about the opposition group, "
Citizens for Better Transit", and wondered how they actually could have defeated this thing. In reality their arguments were pretty lame, and their spokespeople were not the most impressive of speakers. I was starting to wonder if they were actually set up by the pro Prop A group as being staged "opponents" they could easily argue and debate. This John Burns fellow does not come across as someone who knows much about what he is talking about, and who would really pick an
unproven activist in his 20's as the lead spokesperson for their campaign? He does have that "common man" feel to him, but if I were setting up the campaign against Proposition A, I would find someone more experienced who could debate better against people like the mayor of Chesterfield or the chancellor of Washington University. The opposing group also could not address the biggest question as to what to do if Proposition A actually were to have failed. There would be another 600 Metro employees out of work, more services would have been cut, and there would be no apparent future for public transportation available for the region at all.
I likened Proposition A to being stuck in the wilderness in the 1800's and you have a fractured, infected leg. The only person who is available is a capable surgeon, but he will only fix your leg if you give him your gun and your horse. There is nobody else who can help you. You either give him your gun and your horse or you die. John Burns would say, "Look, I know this fellow may be a decent surgeon, but I've heard he beats his wife and plus he seems a bit greedy. You cannot afford to give up your horse and your gun, so you should not let him fix your leg! Leave it alone and it will take care of itself." Who would really take that kind of advice? Metro is currently our only choice and if we do not support them and keep them running our community would be taking two step backwards. You cannot be "pro transit" and vote against Proposition A. Voting for it was the only realistic option. So the transit tax had to win, and I am very glad it did. But now I am wondering if we voters were all played a little too well. Hey, I really do believe we landed people on the moon (and the rovers on Mars of course!)
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