BuckeyeBlog

Last year, Americans for Prosperity and COAST were part of a group of organizations that enacted a red-light camera ban in Cincinnati. Red light cameras’ effectiveness as a safety tool is questionable. In fact, there is strong evidence they actually make intersections less safe. It is not questionable, though, that they help enrich local governments, are ripe for abuse, and are a violation of citizens’ privacy.

Now AFP and COAST are bringing their crusade to end this government abuse to Toledo:

The groups will be hosting an organizing meeting for the 2009 campaign on Monday, January 12, 2009 at the Point Place Branch Library, 2727 117th St. Toledo 43611 at 7:00 PM.  Members of the public are invited to join the assemblage to help place the initiative on the ballot.

Red light cameras are one in a long-line of proposals that ostensibly advance safety at the expense of liberty. It’s good to see people out there who actually care about liberty battling the nanny state.

It is reported below that an entity (COHHIO) receiving all of its funding through government grants has spent some $260,000 campaigning for the ‘yes’ side on Issue 5.

If an entity is entirely dependent on government funding then it is hard to call it anything other than a proxy for government. Can anyone really image a group so funded doing anything other than what its government patrons would want it to do?

Since government holds the strings on the COHHIO puppet, then government itself is working to influence the outcome of the vote on Issue 5.

The people of Ohio deserve a chance to debate the merits of Issue 5 without the interference of government.

Check that. The freedom of Ohioans is at stake when government interferes with election outcomes. Arguably the greatest gift the Founders gave to America and the world is the notion that ‘we the people’ are the sovereign of this country. Government by the people promotes our freedom. Government over the people threatens it.

When government puts its thumb on an election scale, it is subverting popular sovereignty and eroding our liberty.

COHHIO’s spending in the Issue 5 campaign is a wasteful abuse of tax dollars, a potential violation of state law and is lamentable in itself.

But is also a very serious threat to freedom in Ohio.