Weston Wamp appears in his dashing “Brave Bet” ad about the American spirit.
By David Snyder
In Tennessee’s 3rd congressional district a challenge is being made against the incumbent, Chuck Fleischmann.
Weston Wamp, son of former congressman Zach Wamp, has a video describing his enthusiastic support of entrepreneurship.
His claim that young entrepreneurs are the answer for a lagging economy is great campaign rhetoric. But a close examination of young Weston’s enthusiastic embrace of Chattanooga’s government-owned network makes this “middle-aged” conservative scratch his head in wonder.
Does Weston understand that the government of Chattanooga has entered into direct competition with risk capital? Let me rephrase: Does Weston Wamp realize the difference between a government “competitor” and one that uses his own money or investment money?
I hope Weston truly will grow into a real conservative and that he will abandon the centralized planning economic model he seems to admire.
This quote is from his website under “the issues.”
In many ways, Weston represents the entrepreneurial community in Chattanooga and, through his work with Lamp Post, he has seen firsthand the opportunities that start-ups are finding by leveraging the area’s unique technology infrastructure — most notably that the area has access to the world’s fastest internet speeds through “the Gig.”
My big problem with this is that the “most notable” accomplishment is nothing more than the largesse and waste of the public’s money on a government program. It is NOT the responsibility of government to provide cable TV and Internet services — even if it is “the fastest in the world.”
I remind Mr. Wamp that it is only a government that would waste public resources on a technology that is not yet in demand. The government of Chattanooga is not visionary — its representatives are poor stewards of the public’s money. If there is no risk attached to the spending of money, it will result in a bureaucratic spending orgy that will put drunken sailors to shame.
Who ultimately pays? Taxpayers and ratepayers. Claiming that this is “entrepreneurship” must have Ronald Reagan, Ayn Rand and Adam Smith rolling over in their graves. I don’t want young “conservatives” being churned out of a local socialist experiment to expand this recklessness in Washington.
I urge Weston to consider joining the Democrat party where his ideas will be more at home with the young leadership there. Hopefully the younger Wamp will eventually mature into a real conservative. Until that time, I urge conservatives to not move him from Chattanooga to Washington.
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David Snyder is owner of RevTel, a local economy-loving telecom service provider in Dayton, Tenn. He writes for Bureaucalypse.org, where this work first appeared. He and his wife, Donna, have two home educated children who work in the business.
