Bush, Kerry, Airplanes

Dude wrote:

Democratic candidates around here have ALWAYS been in league with the
developers who pad their campaign chests. In fact, many of the DEM
candidates ARE developers. This area is one where the GOP has been better.

Now you're talking about local politics, which as you noted below is a
different issue. There are plenty of places, my home county included,
where there are plenty of local Democratic politicians who are
right-wing developer cronies, simply because Republicans never get
elected to local office so those "Democrats" are actually Republicans in
Democratic clothes IMO. If there were a viable Republican party in my
county, those people would be Republicans, but they register Democratic
to give themselves a chance to get elected. Also, since almost all of
the money in local races is developer money (around here anyway), it's
the rare politician of any party that can get elected without their support.

But on a national level, the Republicans are more likely to be the party
of the homebuilders and developers -- just look at where they put their
political donations; those people are not dumb with their money. But we
digress, as this thread is about national elections.

which doesn't surprise me given that it's
probably a group that skews wealthier.

I think its not the wealth, but the amount of independence and self
determination that skews this group towards Conservative and Libertarian
beliefs.

There's that denial again. Given how much our government actively spends
and regulates to make GA as we know it possible, and given how heavily
GA pilots depend on government services and subsidies, it's just
laughable to say that GA pilots' Republican leaning comes from being a
more independent and self-determining group. Pilots are a wealthier
group who use their wealth to buy themselves some measure of
independence and self-determination, not to mention influence over how
government policies and spending are carried out to their benefit. But
we are no more independent and self-determining than the farmers who
collect their subsidy and price support checks and benefit from
market-limiting laws while calling themselves independent and
self-determining.

(and I will resist going into how silly it is to say that Republicans
are more self-determining, given their party's views on social issues
and regulation of private, personal behavior).

but the reality is that
GA is a pretty heavily subsidized activity that we would not be able to
enjoy without significant government subsidy and intervention.

This is a whole nother ball of wax. Is it really denial? My position is
that the only reason GA is dependent on the government is government control
and interference put in place to favor the airlines. If our airspace were
more like our highways (idiotic HOV lanes aside),

Driving on highways? Well, there's another heavily subsidized activity,
and using that as a model does not do much to make your case that GA
could be successful without govt subsidy.

You can fly a piper cub off your farm to your
friend's farm at no cost to anyone else. Privately owned and publicly open
airports can and do make profits,

And how many of our Republican rec.aviation.owning pilots fly
exclusively into and out of airfields that are built and operated
without government subsidy, huh? Would there be such a market for GA
without thousands of subsidized airports to fly into and out of? Could
buddies' farm patches really sustain this industry that we depend on?

That said, this wouldn't be enough to make me a Democrat if I weren't
already one though. I just wouldn't fool myself into thinking that I'm
not being a hypocrite by partaking of such massive government subsidy
and support while proclaiming that we need less government.


Seriously, I think the 'massive' part of the subsidy is really related to
the national and major carriers.

I disagree. I do agree that the national and major carriers are
subsidized, but so is GA if not more so on proportional basis. After
all, the national carriers pay ticket taxes and rent to airport
authorities and landing fees that GA generally doesn't pay. I would
gess that less than 10% of the airports in this country that are
federally subsidized will ever see a major commercial carrier land there.

Don't blame me for using class B radar
service.

Do you get weather briefings? Do you use radio navaids? Do you listen
to AWOS/ASOS broadcasts? Do you receive GPS signals, or have equipment
that reads GPS databases which are based on data that the U.S. Govt
provides free of charge to equipment manufacturers? Do you buy
navigation charts for a whole lot less than it costs to compile and
maintain them? Etc. etc.

At any rate GA is one of very many issues I base my vote on, and it's
not even in the top 10 of importance.

I have to agree with you on national offices. However, local candidates had
better pay attention to GA issues if they want my support.

On this we clearly agree.