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Call me small minded. Or nave. Or partisan. I lay claim to little bits of all three attributes. Any one of which may account for my railing against the local assaults on individual freedom while overlooking a larger threat to democracy. Not so much the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though, with good cause, President Biden has labeled it as such. Rather, the possibly bigger threat to democracy, also duly labeled by the President the scary orange dictator-in-waiting on the home front, former President Donald Trump.

Here I am claiming that burdensome taxation represents a threat to personal freedom. That the granting of massive property tax favors to hand-picked business interests by unelected bureaucratic agencies violates the democratic spirit. That the coercion (by an equally unelected State agency) of local schools to erase traditional sports team names represents an unwarranted usurpation of local decision making. That the self-assured presumption by city government to arbitrarily enroll homeowners with an electricity supplier of its choice (unless they take the step to opt-out) is a free-choice-skirting imposition of government authority.

I often write about these abrogations of freedom. Im concerned that many elected politicians and, even worse, unelected functionaries of the administrative state want to tell you and me what kind of car to drive or stove to buy. All for the greater good, of course. Or for your own good, as my parents often said. And they, these new parental figures, may well be right to think that they must look out for people such as you and me. Decent folks, for the most part, but certainly not to trusted with too much freedom of choice.

As if to prove the point, millions of deluded Americans, I admit to being among that number, fail to see the unmistakable similarities between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. Between the orange headed monster and that other monster who orchestrated the extermination of 6 million Jews. Between the far right MAGA mob that staged a several-hour assault on the Capitol and the Nazi brown shirts who destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses during the two-day Kristallnacht and carried out the yearslong cleansing process of judenrein (free of Jews) across Germany and the occupied countries.

As Ive admitted, that I dont see something doesnt mean that its not real. And although the likes of Hillary Clinton and Robert DeNiro (Hes [Trump] a pig Id like to punch him in the mouth) appear to be well-fed, well-clothed, and well-feted in respectable circles despite their eight-year tour of sneering at our domestic Hitler, those appearances do not necessarily prove them wrong. Do not necessarily indicate that they do not feel at all threatened but might simply detest Donald Trump. Perhaps, to be fair, they and the multitude of journalists and pundits who have made a nice living drawing the Hitler or swine comparisons have courageously surmounted their fear of imminent suffering, privation, and imprisonment to sound a needed alarm.

A columnist in my favorite local newspaper recently was so bold as to take the historical comparison a step further in likening Trump to another Teutonic destroyer: Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser of Imperial Germany. With the Wilhelm/ Hitler/Trump continuum, we neatly cover two world wars (both kindled by the first pair of moral cretins), 100 million dead, and the even worse outcome likely if Trump were to win a second term as President. During which term, he will somehow, despite a powerful entrenched resistance to his every action, be able to wreak holy vengeance on immigrants, minorities, unfriendly journalists, EV owners, career civil servants, Knicks fans, anti-frackers, LGBTQs, and weekend golfers failing to sport a red MAGA cap.

Now, it is fair to observe that Donald Trump is a bit, or more, of the cad, the narcissist, the performer. Close in spirit to former President Bill Clinton in many ways. Another kinship is that both were impeached. In the words of the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Impeachment is forever.

Ms. Pelosi, of course, is a non-partisan guardian of democracy, well remembered for the stateswomanlike tearing up of her copy of President Trumps 2020 State of the Union address before assembled representatives, guests and a national television audience. According to some, especially those generally alarmed by Trumps breaches of decorum and norms, this was far from a threat to democracy, but rather a rip-roaring defense of it. Amazingly, Speaker Pelosi has gone on to lead a calm and prosperous life. But maybe Trump and the MAGA hordes are simply biding their time. Or maybe, as Im inching toward believing, the allegation that Trump and his supporters represent a dire threat to democracy is more an expression of self-interested partisanship than an honest assessment.

Which brings me back to my more local concerns. How is it that an unelected group of individuals, almost universally unknown to the voting taxpayers, can give a 10-year fixed assessment to the billionaire owners of a luxury resort on the northern shore of Canandaigua Lake? An assessment, no less, that sits at probably 15% of full market value. At the same time, those aforementioned taxpaying commoners are seeing the assessments on their property bumped up by anywhere from 30% to 80%. The questionable reason given for this beautifully democratic reassessment is that it ensures that everyone is paying property taxes on full market value.

Granted this apparent undemocratic skewing of the tax system doesnt rise to a Hitlerian level. It doesnt involve Trump or Biden (or does it?). In the big picture it may not even represent a threat to democracy. If I were larger of mind, Id likely ignore such a parochial issue and go on to the bigger threat. Come to think of it, I have.

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GUEST APPEARANCE: Threats to democracy both local, not-so-local - Finger Lakes Times