Funk You Kansas City!!!

Nearly everybody who has a blog is going to provide an analysis of last night's election that will most likely be horribly misleading AND neglect the fact that the only thing Mark Funkhouser did was unite every white person in this city against the Black voting bloc in this town . . . And no matter what the ill-informed local media might report . . . The Funkhouser campaign was NOT A GRASSROOTS EFFORT unless the McClatchy media conglomerate has taken a bigger hit in the market because of declining newspaper ad revenue than has been recently reported.

But I digress . . . The point here is that there was nothing new about Funky's campaign . . . By the way, one of his many new nicknames will now be "Funky" so that we can finally dispense with the booty kissing by every blogger who ever referred to him as "The Funk." Those days are over now given that this first time political office holder will most likely sell out all of the various political constituencies that backed him and will undoubtedly struggle to build any kind of consensus considering that he won the election by little more than one thousand votes.

Additionally, there will be a temptation to declare this "a victory for local blogs!" but, The Star's endorsement of Funkhouser was much more important than the Internet cheering section which did little to influence any candidate's campaign other than provide free PR and a notable lack of any critical thinking or analysis. That's the only part of this election that really bums me out . . . Every blog that commented on the race for Mayor merely resorted to simplistic (and mindless) flag waving . . . Few bloggers wanted to analyze any part of this race . . . They simply wanted to back a winner. Really, the commentary from local blogs regarding the Mayoral race was a waste of bandwidth. All of this amazing freedom . . . To do or write almost anything imaginable and most of what I read was nothing more than slogans and the repeating of stump speeches and talking points. Its was kind of sad really.

But I can't say that the Internet pundits were any worse than the rest of this city . . . And don't get it twisted, I wasn't an Alvin Brooks supporter but I will tell you that I don't feel bad that I wrote in a vote for Charles Wheeler anymore . . . And even that doesn't matter. What's important about Funkhouser's victory his first time out (with the help of his friends at The Star) is that the aftermath of this decision has just started and right now I have just a few highlights of what Kansas City really accomplished last night:

Ignored the topic of crime completely.

Turned our back on this town's public schools by backing Funkhouser's laughable flip-flopping and ill-informed statements on the matter.

Supported a first time politician with absolutely no record of civic or community involvement and little to no close contacts in those areas.

Assured that The Sprint Center will remain without an anchor tenant given that Funkhouser's dour persona is sure to kill any and every bit of excitement regarding the new facility.

Ran the TIF issue into the ground and undeniably created a hostile environment toward investment by big business in this city. I certainly don't want to advocate for corporate interests but I will admit that they have more money than flaky college grad students.

And the list goes on . . . But I doubt the euphoria from the Funkhouser camp has had a chance to fade yet . . . It will take a while (3 months) to realize that the guy is pretty much powerless when it comes to this town's tiny media market, macro economic forces, the social and political climate of this country on the verge of losing another war or the ongoing neglect of the violent deaths of young, Black men on the Eastside that his campaign seemed to capitalize on . . . Seriously, one of the key issues that was never discussed is how poverty, crime and violence are inherently unappealing topics of discussion and Funkhouser's expert dodging of all these issues was undoubtedly part of his success. Funny thing is . . . These problems don't go away just because the mayor doesn't talk about them (Country Club Kay proved that) or because few bloggers bother to post about them . . . They only get worse and the problems have only grown worse ast time goes on -- no matter how many people west of Troost want to address anything but the sad subject.

So, I never had much hope for Brooks and I don't have any faith in Funkhouser . . . What I am looking forward to is that my upcoming entertainment (other than the Sopranos) will consist mainly of watching this guy make one mistake after the next just as any brand new politico might AND watching the inevitable disappointment of his supporters as they somehow never learned that nobody should put so much faith in a politician.