Virginia Is for Revolution
Virginia is on fire. Not wild fire, thank goodness, and not the weather, either. I’m talking about what The Washington Post called “one of the most successful citizen uprisings . . . in recent memory.”
Weeks ago I told you about these new, draconian abusive driver fees passed in Virginia. Politicians claim they needed more money to build roads, as if all the gas and car taxes we pay didn’t exist. Knowing that voters wouldn’t stand for yet another tax increase, politicians decided to sock it to the few by slapping fines as high as $3,000 on driving offenses.
Well, citizens were furious. But we might never have known how our fellow citizens felt except for the fact that more than 171,000 Virginians have signed an online petition telling the legislature to repeal this abusive law. Wow. That’s one in every 45 or 46 Virginians.
Who came up with this idea? Some mastermind political guru?
It was Bryan Ault, a software tester from Alexandria, who told me that he had started the petition because everyone he talked to opposed the law, just like he did. He said, “I needed a way to demonstrate that opposition to legislators.”
Bryan Ault was smart. He posted the petition on Craigslist and MySpace. And he got some help from bloggers and various groups like the National Taxpayers Union. But the key to it all was taking action, taking that first step.
One citizen lit a spark and let 171,000 fellow citizens speak out.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
