Theresa Pockrus and the Politicheskoye Buro

The Benton County Zoning Committee met with the county’s Zoning Focus Group last night at the Rogers Public Library to rationally consider and discuss planning issues for the county. As might be expected in Benton County, what they got was something else. Theresa Pockrus, the former Republican Tax Collector for Benton County, offered up a political diatribe on the dangers of communism.

Benton County residents can't say they haven't been warned about the Red Menace lurking in their county government. Last summer, Penne S. Ramsey of Garfield issued a warning about the proposed county nuisance abatement ordinance to infringe on the individual liberty to decorate the compound surrounding one's bunker with old cars and refrigerators. "I just wonder who the communist is who wants to tell me just how to use my property and how clean I am to keep it," she inquired, but the pinko politician was never apprehended.

Attorney Pockrus said she adamantly opposes any zoning for the county, because it would be “moving toward communism and away from capitalism.” You see, she explained, zoning is more about protecting the common good and the collectivist concept of community, subrogating the sacred property rights of the rugged Individual. Capitalist hog lot next to the capitalist lake house? No problem. Better an overwhelming stench of pig shit than a whiff of socialism in Benton County.

Committee member Lane Gabel sounded like he was already brainwashed. He said, “The democratic process decides” which areas should be zoned. “I’m not willing to accept that 60 percent of counties in this country are leaning toward communism or that 100 percent of our cities are leaning toward communism.” Like she said....

Fellow travelers and useful idiots abound, it seems. Benton County is just lucky to have Theresa Pockrus on the front line, Ann Coulter on Fox News, and KURM on the radio.