Candidates for judge such as Mike Little of Chattanooga are susceptible to the public’s interest by standing for election. Mr. Little awaits results of the day’s balloting for criminal court judge in Hamilton County, Tenn. (Photo Facebook)
Soddy-Daisy voters line up to insert their ballots into a state-owned machine that tallies their preferences on Super Tuesday. (Photo David Tulis)
A senior election worker, right, assists an even more senior person fill out a form in the exercise of the political franchise at a Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., polling station. (Photo David Tulis)
The noisy play of federal candidates for president overshadowed the much quieter operation in Chattanooga-area primary voting today in which citizens cast votes for judge and assessor.
Primary voting in Hamilton County will decide who fills the criminal court judgeship held by an appointee of Gov. Bill Haslam. Tom Greenholtz, who has little criminal court experience, is a favorite on account of his connections and funding — triple that of either rival.
By David Tulis
Facing him was a prosecutor endorsed by an international cop fraternity, Boyd Patterson, and a defense attorney, Mike Little, who shed an independent criminal defense practice to serve plea bargain mill known as the public defender’s office.
My own preference has been for Mr. Little the defense attorney, who will tend to look out more for the interests of the private party than that of the state. Prosecutors have become a sort of corrosive poison upon American society. Their class is responsible for filling state and federal prisons with people who have offended the “peace and dignity of the state” though done no living soul any wrong.
Why I focus on the defense attorney
An interview with Mr. Little suggests he is a work in progress, hoving closer to the rule of the constitution and the rule of law than his lawyerly training would have encouraged. Still, that judicial hopeful seems not to grasp the enormity of the American judicial-industrial complex of which he is a low-level cog. He has no sense of what I perceive is a terrific grinding down of innocent people by the state, which views the people as the enemy and their liberties as obstacles to its smooth operation.
Whomever comes out on top of the national government is, for us localists and Noogacentrists, almost a detail.
Mrs. Clinton will make things only slightly worse than the best of the Republican heap. Whether it be any of Messrs. Trump, Cruz or Rubio, the presidential office is set to rule by fiat and return not a bit of liberties stolen from the American people by President Obama and his predecessors. The best man may be chosen, but can do little to avert a financial meltdown which is perhaps six months to five years ahead.
The worst candidate, if elected, will do little to worsen the ire and disappointment of the people of Chattanooga or the rest of the country.
Bleak prospect for local economy
“No matter who wins this next presidential election,” says constitutional attorney John Whitehead, “you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we — the permanent underclass in America — will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private.***
“It is estimated that 2.7 million children in the United States have at least one parent in prison, whether it be a local jail or a state or federal penitentiary, due to a wide range of factors ranging from overcriminalization and surprise raids at family homes to roadside traffic stops. *** Today, 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles, reports Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. ‘Some have tanks.’
“At least 400 to 500 innocent people are killed by police officers every year. Indeed, Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist. *** Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be made financially liable for their wrongdoing.”
I quote Mr. Whitehead on these points because it is at the front door and on the roadways — in police encounters — that people have their most unpleasant connection with the modern state. Likely there is little relief ahead from the worst of state violence against people and their business in the marketplace.
Police violence affects local economy indirectly. If police were demilitarized, de-escalated or abolished, the sharing economy would enjoy much encouragement. It would be better for minority business, minority neighborhoods, poor people and would bear fruit in fewer people being drawn into gangs (pushed there, I suggest, by policing itself). As the federal state caves in and yields to the forces of digital economy and decentralization, we will do better in local economy here in Chattanooga and southeast Tennessee.
There’ll be more freedom, more optimism, more self-government, more occasion for mercy and charity and private initiative. These benefits will flood into view, Lord willing, within the next 20 years.
Source: John Whitehead, “Reality Check: No Matter Who Wins the White House, the New Boss Will Be the Same as the Old Boss,” March 1, 2016, Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
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