Lower taxes vs. better communities

While walking past the Montgomery County Republican Party booth at the Ag Fair, of course I responded when queried.

The first thing that I remember being said to me is "Do you want lower taxes?"

Unfortunately, I didn't have a rejoinder immediately handy, which should have been "What I want most is a better community."

It happens that on our neighborhood listserv we've been discussing party competition and DC which has none of it.  I mentioned that I come from Michigan, which when I grew up, had an honorable moderate Republican tradition, that I had voted for Republicans when I first voted, that Mitt Romney was a decent Governor especially on smart growth issues, etc.

One member of the listserv, whose business has focused on hair braiding, pointed out that the strongest support for differentiated licensing for hair braiders vs. cosmeticians or hair stylists comes from Republicans (although it's because they don't believe in professional licensing in general).

Left vs. Right Spectrum infographic from Information is Beautiful.

That being said, I'd rather have lower taxes than higher taxes, smaller government than bigger government, exemplary government action rather than waste, and more support for self-help.

But given the anti-government, pro-wealthy, somewhat misogynist and racist agenda of the Republican Party "nationally" and the pro-property rights (semi-anti historic preservation) agenda locally, it's very difficult for me to vote for a Republican now.

What is the right kind of urban agenda for the Republican Party?  However, since I never managed to score a review copy of the book Seemless City by Rick Baker, the Republican former mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, I bought it, but haven't gotten around to reading it, to figure out what an ideal Republican urban agenda would be.

What is the right kind of metropolitan agenda for the Republican Party given that metropolitan areas, at least for national and statewide offices, tend to vote more Democratic as well?  It's all relative, these suburban metro voters tend to be more progressive politically than more rural areas of their respective states, but still more conservative than center city voters.  And as we discussed yesterday, suburban voters tend to be less favorable towards fixed rail transit.