George Will has finally discovered here the most important issue in politics; speed humps in Chevy Chase, DC that create angry liberals. Angry liberals also populate the parking lot at Whole Foods on River Road.
Raleigh’s liberals are not to be outdone. They are installing speed humps and other “traffic calming” devices all over the city as we report here. And as Will observes “traffic calming” devices may slow vehicles but they also make drivers very angry even if you are a liberal.
Chevy Chase, D.C., is, Schwartzman says, “a community that views
itself as the essence of worldly sophistication.” Some cars there
express their owner’s unassuageable anger by displaying faded
“Kerry/Edwards” and even “Gore/Lieberman” bumper stickers. Neighborhood
zoning probably excludes Republicans, other than the few who are bused
in for “diversity.”
Speed humps — the lumps on the pavement that force traffic to
go slow — have, Schwartzman reports, precipitated “a not-so-civil war
… among the lawyers, journalists, policymakers and wonks” of Chevy
Chase — and Cleveland Park, another D.C. habitat for liberals. The
problem is that a goal of liberal urbanists has been achieved: Families
with young children are moving into such neighborhoods. They worry
about fast-flowing traffic. Hence speed humps.
And street rage. Some people who think speed humps infringe
their rights protest by honking when they drive over one. The purpose
is to make life unpleasant for the people who live on the street and
think they have a right to have the humps. One resident, who
Schwartzman identifies as the husband of a former campaign manager for
Hillary Clinton, recently sat on his porch and videotaped an angry
driver who honked 30 times. Other honkers “gave residents the finger as they drove by.”Can’t liberals play nicely together? Not, evidently, when they
are bristling, like furious porcupines, with spiky rights that demand
respect because the rights-bearers’ dignity is implicated in them.
