The Washington Post today had a front-page story about the 37th (or 98th or millionth?) attempt by Chevy Chase to block the Purple Line, which would provide an east-west link between Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties, including service to communities of the poor, the non-white, and immigrants. The identity of those behind this latest lawsuit didn’t appear on p. 1, where the headline was “Purple Line’s foes add Metro safety, maintenance problems to legal argument.” But anyone who has followed this issue knew without turning to the continuation page that Purple Line Foe = Chevy Chase Resident.
Sure enough, below the fold, we learn that the main culprit this time is a so-called “environmental lawyer,” John M. Fitzgerald, who is now making safety arguments in order to (hypocritically) put more cars on the road.
Chevy Chase decided, en masse, years ago that they didn’t want the riffraff destroying their bucolic sense of entitlement. They have made up protected species, They have argued about costs. They have litigated about land residents stole from the right of way. Now they are exploiting Metro’s woes (the Purple Line won’t even be run by Metro!) to justify their foregone conclusion. Once they made up their minds to keep the world out, they used any handy excuse for litigation they could find to stop this worthy, necessary public transportation project.
Chevy Chase is overwhelmingly Democratic, just like the rest of Montgomery County. But these are false liberals – they believe in the public good only as long as it doesn’t inconvenience them.This is the partisan equivalent of the Republicans who support progressive policies only when they or their families will directly benefit (e.g., support to increase disease research when a family member has the disease or switching sides on gay marriage after your daughter or son has come out.)
Chevy Chase is just as selfish as Wall Street. As we watch this latest attempt to block progressive policy go down in expensive flames, true progressives shouldn’t let them forget it.
©2016 Keith Berner
