Of Montgomery County’s approximate 675,000 voters, less than 1% (far less than 1%) are Libertarians. That means pretty much everyone reading this column isn’t familiar with a pro-choice stream of consciousness, so I’ll share with you mine as I take an escalator down to a Metro station.
“Why am I paying $7.50 to get to a Nats game? Who made that fare up, some unelected committee? And an elected committee would come up with a better price? This entire contraption should be sold to CSX. More importantly, the fare that I’m paying covers only 17% of the real operating cost, and the deficit is made up by federal, state, and local taxpayers, and why should taxpayers in Arlington, Germantown, Baltimore, and Denver subsidize my subway ride? Taxpayers in Germantown, those suckers don’t even have a Metro stop, so they are paying for my subway ride and they are stuck in I-270 traffic. Taxpayers in Baltimore deserve to subsidize my ride, because the Orioles’ owner Pete Angelos for years kept DC from having its own team, but that was him working as a free-market actor protecting his own assets so it’s OK he was objecting, but it’s not OK he was objecting because he really isn’t a free-market actor because he convinced the state government to borrow $1.2 billion to upgrade his stadium so it’s OK that Baltimore taxpayers are suckers, and even worse the federal taxpayers in Denver are helping pay for my Metro ride, so they are also suckers, but my federal taxes are paying for their light rail system so I’m also a sucker, but only 14% of Denver’s light rail is subsidized by federal grants, and a whopping 24% of our Metro is subsidized by federal grants, so on balance a Denver taxpayer is 10% more a sucker than I am, and I really need to stop figuring out which overpaid social-engineering bureaucrat is making a worse sucker out of whom, and in any event, Bell, if you really were pro-choice you wouldn’t take advantage of Balto-Denver taxpayers by taking the Metro to a baseball game, and you wouldn’t go to a ball park whose construction included a $1 billion subsidy by the DC government, and even more importantly, Bell, you need to stop putting hyperlinks inside your internal dialogue.”
As you can see, pro-choice introspection can become rather dismal rather quickly, and that’s a risk undertaken by anyone involved with public policy.
Compare my approach to public infrastructure with that of Esther Wells.
Since Metro did such an outstanding job last week getting me home safe at a very reasonable price of $3.85, after Uber/Lyft was surging around $100 & congested traffic, I decided to make Metro my 1st choice to safely transport me to the airport again, $6. @wmata Thank you!
— Esther L. Wells (@EstherLWells) May 22, 2023
She sees the positive when the positive is there. That characteristic is an example for us all.
And who is Esther Wells? She came on the local scene in 2022 running for a seat on the Board of Education. She ran on a platform of educational and financial accountability, which guaranteed that the teachers’ union bury her campaign live out of spite and fear (certainly not for the benefit of students or teachers). Since then she has taken over leadership of the Montgomery County Taxpayer League. In that capacity she has been able to engage high-ranking county officials so that they can at least hear what Wells has to say on our behalf.
EVENT: Tues. July 11th, 2023 at 7pm. MCTL Hosts Councilman Jawando, Chair of Education & Culture (virtual). Register & submit your questions. https://t.co/KgeFU54qJo @EstherLWells @CMJawando pic.twitter.com/EUnffj8t30
— MCTaxpayers (@MoCoTaxpayers) June 15, 2023
She often tweets regarding the discrimination students face in MCPS.
(Ombudsman) many groups came to the Board saying they see things happening, that now have a seat at the table. It’s not perfect, but I agree. Please reach out, there are resources available & better job needs to be there visibly.
— Esther L. Wells (@EstherLWells) June 13, 2023
She has a clear ability to think critically, identifying gaps between a policy objective and policy makers.
The data shows that inflation adjusted rent is lower now, multi-family rents are down. The data doesn’t line up with the flurry of rent control, rent stabilization Bills introduced by CC recently. Can CMs please reconcile the data to the Bills? pic.twitter.com/yEnmlC4QGt
— Esther L. Wells (@EstherLWells) June 12, 2023
I could go on and on.
Anyone can run for office, anyone can get pummeled by the teachers’ union, a few people can successfully run a policy organization, but only Esther Wells has the emotional intelligence to provide the praise, nuance, and pointed questions in a constructive and non-accusatory manner.
Esther, if you’re reading this, thank you for everything you do!
