AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

What I learned on my Spring Vacation:
Lesson 1: The Libertarian West is Full of Hypocrites.

The highlight of my last two months is a trip out west to Arizona, Nevada and Utah to enjoy our national parks. We traveled from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon National Park, back to Las Vegas, then to four national parks in Utah: Zion, Arches, Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon. It's nice to see that many of our national treasures are in good hands with the National Park Service.

These states are known to be hotbeds of libertarianism. I ran into a lot of folks who were hostile to the United States government and Barack Obama in particular. This was incredible to me because the overall impression that I got of these states is that almost everything that was great about these states was either made that way by God or the National Government. These states, with their thin populations have wonderful, well-kept highways. Most of the money circulating came into the economy courtesy of the U.S. government, whether it be social security, military wages and pensions, military contractor money or public works. Hoover Dam is a spectacular facility, providing countless megawatts of power, and initially paid for by the United States government. Remote areas have electric power, phones and postal service due to federal initiatives and subsidies.