A short love letter to my home county.
What is to become of Delco?
Regulars here have heard Ron and I make jokes and tell stories about where we grew up. In our childhood it was nearly idyllic. We grew up in Yeadon. We’ve both lived in other towns there as well. My sons grew up in Upper Darby. They saw some of the first signs of real decline there.
My Delaware County, my Delco, is becoming more like “blue” America. The county where I grew up is a shadow of its former self. Parts of the county have been absorbed, inexplicably into the dump that is Philadelphia, a political and social dumpster fire.
This started some decades ago. The Philly border towns, (Yeadon and Darby) incorporated entities that are STILL part of Delaware County, have been tainted by municipal Philly politics and municipal failure. Someone thought it was a good idea to take politicians from a corrupt city and have THEM represent suburban interests. As the trend toward city Blue has replaced suburban Red, the county has become more bureaucratic, more litigious and more addicted to the federal government…or big government generally.
I seriously doubt there is anyone left in Media (county seat) who remembers the proper hierarchy of governance this nation was built on, local government first and most important, then state concerns and the federal government last. The President should be an afterthought. In reversing that hierarchy (federal government with all the power – local government just a springboard for the BIG government positions), Delco is rapidly diminishing, fading into an over-governed cesspool of corruption and infighting. Most of the residents are clueless to the process.
But what got me jacked up on this subject isn’t just the passing of my hometown. It was watching the corrupt government nonsense that has become the hallmark of American politics. A major part of Delco is now indistinguishable from the rest of the “blue” badlands.
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Po River supports the P4B!
To wit: Three years after Upper Darby (same county) received $41.8M politicians are IN COURT trying to decide which favored entity will get the money pissed down on them by the political power brokers.
A judge, property of one side or the other, has put a hold on spending the money until only the best political hacks and donors can be found.
See the story here. https://broadandliberty.com/2024/06/20/judge-halts-upper-darby-arpa-spending-changes/
Right out of the gate, you see the problem, right? The money was so critical to the interests of Americans, a large township still can’t figure out what to do with it all.
I asked the cosmos why the federal beast pissed away all the money in the American Rescue Plan Act (1 bill among 4 wasteful monsters) in 2021. The cosmos replied, “Well…because…because…Covid! That’s why?”
When I asked how a pile of money that nobody was ready to spend helped with Covid, the cosmos stood mute.
So, along with the failed cities - Detroit, LA, San Francisco, New York, DC (explain THAT one) and the cancer to the east, Philadelphia - Delaware County and it’s towns have become nothing but conduits through which the national and state political classes buy votes and win political donations and bakshish.
There are two main points that grab you by the throat here. First, If I give you $41M and after three years, you can’t figure out what the hell to do with it…you didn’t NEED my money.
Also, the article linked makes a point of saying that there are people in Upper Darby who are worried that if they don’t waste the money on something SOON, the government will claw back the money. Here’s the funny part. If the government does pull it back, that money ceases to exist – on the spot. It was printed funny money. It isn’t real. There are no “coffers” to return it to. It will vanish. That won’t help or hurt the economy, but it will expose what many towns across the country are finding out, money doesn’t solve problems. Initiative, leadership and ownership of the problems do. None of that comes with federal government funny money. Also, there will be, as a matter of bookkeeping, $41M less for the Biden administration to brag about in their propaganda. Upper DArby and Delaware County are not alone int this. hundreds of billions of dollars the federal power freaks dumped on us have gone into the pockets of people undeservedly across the country. Fo9und money always gets wasted, pilfered.
But Upper Darby, the heart of Delco, is now a nest of screeching chicks with their beaks open, begging mommy government for a morsel of the funny money. This kind of pointless governance destroys society.
There are still nice areas in Delco (Swarthmore, parts of Springfield, most of Marple) that have not been swallowed up by the cancer – YET. But the county has gone “blue”. And if those healthy towns don’t make their weight felt at the county level, if they don’t kick the municipal carpet baggers out of their county, even the remaining “nice” parts of Delco will disappear, absorbed by the cancer. Reverse the trend, eliminate the problem, or die.