P.J. O’Rourke said it best:

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then get elected and prove it.”

Let that sink in. Because it best describes the Grand Junction City Council meeting held on the night of May 29th and the 7-0 vote to further the experiment on Fourth and Fifth Streets; all because a few folks tugged on heartstrings about taking Fido for a walk, imaginary bicycle commuters who still don’t commute on those streets, and kids playing in the streets is somehow now safer than when these same adults played stickball back in the day.

In other words, it was all about feelings. Note to City Council: If you’re going to take two weeks or more after a vote to implement something as the result of your vote, could you at least spend that time on some fact-finding instead of calling a hastily scheduled meeting largely based on feelings?

Apparently, the citizens now have their answer. No wonder we wrote the removal needed to begin immediately. By that we meant faster than the shovels broke ground on making the Avalon a double-wide.

But now we have far more frightening answers regarding the backbones of those newly elected along with the much-evidenced fact that electing conservatives and leaving them alone to do what they say they were going to do and keep promises is some of the worst logic on the planet. Because they never do.

The bigger problem: Progressives always do.

O’Rourke’s wisdom and witnessing the folding of our newly elected council members are the only explanations for the 7-0 vote to implement an “enhanced” version of the Fourth and Fifth Street experiment after a “listening session” this past week. The final nail in the coffin is all the blogs and podcasts excitedly declaring, “We won.”

It would be better stated, “The voters lost.”

Let us repeat why the four of the 4-3 vote to cancel the Fourth and Fifth Street pilot project were elected. You were elected to end the Fourth and Fifth Street pilot project and revert the streets back to their form before the experiment began. If you wanted to look at other solutions for a problem that doesn’t exist, that would still be your elected right.

And yet you only held on for two weeks. That, sadly, might be a record either way the people look at it. And just in case our four council members aren’t listening (which we are surer than ever they aren’t), this record, either way, is not a good thing.

Otherwise, how can our recently elected city council explain a 180-degree change in their votes over such a short time period?

The only other explanation is their election and sudden gain of power (together with the phenomenon of becoming all-knowing above the people because one won an election) means they had to support the decisions made by the previous council members as a sense of civic duty. But it can’t be that, because you ran for office based on the fact that the previous council made bad decisions, and you were going to be the ones changing that after listening to the people.

Yet here is Grand Junction today, realizing votes for hope and change resulted in more of the same. Then again, that’s the very definition of progressive hope and change. It’s just hitting more locally.

The vote city council took the other night could have been 4-3 in telling the people, “We stand on our word and promises. And while we’re happy to listen, we are going to make decisions on facts and data and not feelings.”

Instead, the new council members gave us Barabbas.

The residents of Grand Junction and Mesa County could have accomplished the same result by voting in the other progressives running. All one needs to do is read the comments from community organizers galore online or on podcasts to know which side won this battle. Which, sadly, appears to be indicative of who’s about to lose the war.

This was going to be an op-ed about recalling Jason Ngyuen. But after the other night, we just might give it some time and see how we “feel” about expanding it to other members.

Maybe then the people’s votes will matter.