Political Thought

By Mark Doggett

Have you noticed the increased traffic in and around Bowling Green? What used to take 15 minutes of travel time now takes 25 or 30 minutes. Bowling Green has changed from a town into a city. If current trends (3.38% annual growth) continue, BG will have a population larger than 100,000 in another 9 years. Are you ready for this?

I have lived in both big cities and small towns. Big cities have lots of things to do. They have opportunities for making money, enjoying entertainment, dancing, foods of all type, and high-speed internet. People come to cities to congregate and socialize.

But big cities also have big problems. Homelessness, drug abuse, crime, and of course traffic congestion to name a few. Cities are impersonal and unfriendly. Always lock your car and don’t leave packages unattended. Don’t make eye contact with strangers.

Towns, on the other hand, don’t have much going on. There are a few local eateries and watering holes. They have a few small businesses and maybe a Walmart, but not a super one. No one would ever think of stealing your mail.

In towns, neighbors meet at the local VFW or community center fundraiser. People know your name and ask about your kids. If a small town resident falls on hard times, the folks pitch in to help them get back on track. Traffic is only a problem on Sunday after church.

What is causing all this growth in BG? One reason is that we are business friendly. Another reason is the university. But is BG family friendly? Is the need for prosperity outpacing the need for community? According to the planning commission, BG is only supposed to grow by 2% per year, but it is well over that. I don’t know about you, but I did not move to BG because I wanted to live in a city.

What is so great about growth? Why are we in such a rush to become big? I think it has something to do with money. Who wants growth? The real estate developers and building contractors for sure. Who benefits? Perhaps big business and the politicians. Don’t get me wrong, I like prosperity as much as anyone. But at what price?

Those promoting growth say BG will be “different” than Lexington or Louisville. But they don’t say how. I don’t believe BG will be any different. Cities always have more problems than towns.

Want to live in a big city? Stick around. I liked BG better when it was still a town.

About Mark

Mark Doggett is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Western Kentucky University.

By Eric Tuttle

In 1966, Congressman William Widnall quipped, “An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.”  A stunning example is Governor Beshear’s recently announced efforts to address the rental housing shortage.

According to the governor’s office, the state will invest $223 million to build 953 affordable rental units in communities impacted by the 2021 tornadoes.  Half of this funding is in direct subsidies, and the other half in low-cost, tax-exempt bonds.

The program will support 11 projects across Graves, Hopkins, Christian, and Warren Counties targeting low- and moderate-income households. Units will be mostly 2 to 3 bedrooms, with some 4- and single-bedroom units.

Based on these figures, Beshear’s plan will cost taxpayers $234,000 thousand dollars per unit.

In comparison, in Bowling Green, there is a well-appointed, newly built apartment building with 16 units (2 to 4 bedroom)  available for $2.1 million – or $131,000 per unit.  This complex is not low-income housing, but apartments targeted at young families. So, if a normal rental property is valued at $130,000 per unit, how can a taxpayer-funded program warrant a cost of $274,000 per unit? 

One need only look at the governors donor list, for an explanation.  The state chamber of commerce and builders’ associations are significant donors to all our elected state officials, including the governor. 

In communities like Bowling Green the biggest obstacle to economic growth is affordable housing.  But as with any voter driven issue, the opportunity for corporate largess and government abuse is high.  Various governmental and quasi-governmental organizations have allocated monies for the construction of low-cost housing but have left the method of use up to our governor.

Beshear is using this opportunity to play Santa Claus. He gets great press, and the builders, who will help fund his next election campaign (whatever office he seeks next), receive projects that will bring great profit and little risk since each project is underwritten with our tax dollars. Sadly, too many Kentuckians will celebrate the outcome without understanding the real cost.

Another solution would be to only use direct capital subsidies to encourage the building of low-income housing, without entirely underwriting every project.  These capital subsidies can take several forms, but generally they reduce the amount that must be borrowed or obtained through a loan from a bank to develop a rental property because a capital subsidy does not need to be paid back.

By using a 40% subsidy model in conjunction with $130,000 per unit from Bowling Green (that’s 52,000 per unit in subsidy) and using the $100 million in direct funding that has been allocated,1900 units could be built. These units could be operated at least 35% below the current average cost of a rental of the same size. So, a 1 to 2 bedroom low income rental would be $550 to $800 a month. 

The scenario above outlines one of many possible solutions to the housing crisis. Unfortunately, our governor is more interested in his own special interests – than the public good.

Eric Tuttle is co-founder of Warren County Conservatives.

By Gary Houchens

Lawmakers in Louisiana recently made headlines and invoked hysterics from the “separation of church and state” crowd by mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in the classrooms of all K-12 and public universities. The law is, like similar laws in the past, probably headed straight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hopefully with a conservative majority, the Court will see the wisdom in what Louisiana’s brave lawmakers have attempted to do: remind students that America’s political culture was not born in a secular vacuum but is the product of a long history of ideas that prominently includes the moral values of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition.

I’m old enough to remember when Kentuckians had their own battle over the Ten Commandments. In 1978 Kentucky adopted a similar law mandating that the Commandments be displayed in classrooms. That law was eventually overturned in a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The dissenting Justices clearly saw what Louisiana’s leaders also see: that making sure every student is aware of the Ten Commandments is not an attempt to indoctrinate them into a specific religious belief. As evangelism, such an effort would be clumsy and ineffective. The Ten Commandments law is, rather, about forming students with an accurate historical understanding of the American system of government and its patrimony.

This is what the opponents of Louisiana’s law miss, and their ignorance is evident in their claims that lawmakers could just as well mandate that various documents or teachings of other religions, including Satanism, be displayed in classrooms.

But those other religious teachings or documents do not have the same kind of direct, historical significance for the United States. The ideas that formed the American founding were a product of Christian civilization, which was itself a synthesis of ideas from Greece, Rome, and, yes, Jerusalem. The Jewish religious tradition provided the moral and theological foundation of Christian belief, which, as it spread to dominate European culture, gave birth to the very ideas secular liberals take for granted as fundamental to our way of life.

Above all, the idea of the dignity of the individual simply did not exist as we understand it today until Judeo-Christian moral values took hold in late antiquity. Historian Tom Holland documents this process in his 2019 book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, cataloging the vast number of ways in which the modern world as we know it could not exist without the Christendom that preceded it.

Dominion was not an attempt at evangelism. Holland was not a Christian at the time he wrote the book, although now it appears he may be regularly attending church, in part because of what he discovered in his studies: that human rights, republican democracy and other values we take for granted are inextricably intertwined with the teachings of Judeo-Christianity.

Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, like Kentucky’s before it, does not infringe on any student’s right to believe whatever they choose about any religion. But it does recognize that students need to know the history of their government, and the civilization from which it emerged, and the religious ideas that informed it. Displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms is a good start on that broader, and necessary, educational goal.

Gary Houchens is director of the educational leadership doctoral program at Western Kentucky University. From 2016-2019 he served on the Kentucky Board of Education.

By Mark Doggett

Kentucky post-secondary institutions would be wise to back off their obsession with so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).”

In the most recent Kentucky legislative session, Senate Bill 6 proposed a ban on discrimination against college students and employees, providing protections for political and social viewpoints that run counter to institutional DEI inclinations. The bill did not advance to the floor for a vote only because House members attempted to replace it with even stronger legislation banning DEI offices and courses promoting or endorsing specific DEI political viewpoints.

If SB 6 had passed, Kentucky would join  28 states that have now introduced legislation limiting or defunding DEI with 11 of those states passing some form of DEI limitations. 

So why do post-secondary schools love DEI? On the surface the words diversity, equity, and inclusion  seem harmless enough, and even virtuous. And who doesn’t want to be virtuous? The devil is always in the details.    

Inclusion means “to be a part of” or “belonging.” Who would object to that? However, in practice inclusion also means excluding or shutting out those who are not part of the “in-group.” For DEI, the in-group is anyone of color or someone who claims to be a victim of oppression. Claim to be marginalized and you can be part of the group. Who is not included? Anyone of European descent. They are considered “oppressors.” Even white allies who support DEI are oppressors because they have “privilege.” Asians and Jews are also called oppressors.

The DEI definition of diversity follows the same convoluted logic. In science, diversity is the difference between things, indicating a variety. Diversity is thought to be a strength. However, DEI turns diversity into tribalism by dividing people into groups sorted by their “identities.” Identity politics assumes beliefs and values are based on a set of visible characteristics. DEI places people into categories based on their race, religion, sex, color, or ethnic origin. To be DEI approved, you must identify as being oppressed or declare your privilege.

Equity is the most disturbing of the DEI triad. Proponents attempt to use it as a synonym for equality, but equity is distinctly different. Equity is about fairness or a lack of favoritism, but DEI gives favoritism to those in the preferred tribal group. Supposed oppressors need not apply. In fact, anyone who expresses unapproved  political views, has apparent privilege, or perceived merit is a “colonizer.” DEI asserts that we must be decolonized to achieve the “virtuous” goals of DEI. Imagine what decolonization would look like.

DEI divides us into tribes and plays favorites. Reverse discrimination is not empowerment or an improvement.

Freedom to earn our success and improve our personal lives is what unites us.

I believe parents will eventually send their children to schools that promote a rigorous education over political activism. Will college administrators begin to think differently about pushing DEI onto students and faculty? Probably not, but they should know that DEI is operating on borrowed time. DEI is the walking dead that nobody really wants.

Mark Doggett, PHD

About Mark

Mark Doggett is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Western Kentucky University.