So much so that for years, I’ve taunted friends who moved to Williamson County when their kids turned 5. [It's a real phenomenon.] Talked about how white-bread our southern neighbor is. How these friends were giving up, taking the easy way out.

Yet now, I am trying hard to figure out a good reason to stay in Davidson County, and I’m having trouble coming up with one. I’m just going to put this out there in hopes that you can help. Tell me where I’m wrong.

No one would argue that our education spending is anemic. In fact, it’s pretty good. But we have a student population with significant challenges in our county’s public schools, challenges which require greater funding. We have a high English language learner population. The poverty rate among Davidson County public schoolchildren is dramatically higher than the county’s rate, because so many middle and upper class families aren’t in the public schools. Last year’s budget woes eliminated real classroom teachers, not just theoretical teaching positions. While I am sometimes encouraged by Dr. Register’s work, I see too many daily examples of poor decisionmaking in the Metro schools to remain heartened for long. And, I have a 5th grader, a 4yo and a 6 month old. So this remains my personal problem for at least 18 more years.

Right now, my family lives 1 1/2 blocks outside [OK I'm biased; the 10yo is a proud graduate] of the best elementary school zone in Davidson County. We were in the zone when I bought the house — that’s why I bought it. Zone changed the next year. I am not even remotely comfortable with what I’m hearing or reading about the school we are zoned for, though I do still need to check it out in person.

A larger problem is that our family is too big for our house. Our 3 kids are spaced just so in gender and age that it would really be best for each to have his or her own bedroom. And in our hip, urban neighborhood, homes with 4 bedrooms are still awfully expensive, even in this economy. For several years now, you’ve been able to get more house for your money in certain parts of Green Hills and definitely in Bellevue, and that’s still the case.

And so for a while, I thought we’d just have to move to the southwestern part of the county. It’s not hip nor nearly so urban, but still not too far out, and we’d get the house our family needed. In a good school district.

But lately? I am trying to wrap my head around it, but I think it makes more sense to move to Brentwood. Here’s why:
* Good schools. Period.
* Good housing value for the dollar is available in some parts of northern Williamson County.
* I don’t hear any bitching in Williamson County about spending on parks and schools. From the outside, those “amenities” of the community seem to be highly valued by a large part of the population.
* They aren’t talking about mortgaging the city or county’s future on a convention center that is difficult to demonstrate the concrete value of. No doubt making it even more difficult to spend on parks and schools in the future than it is now.

There are some downsides, for sure. I’ll be a political minority, but I get along with most everyone. I do know all my elected officials here, and that is nice, but when the awfully smart folks I vote for aren’t able to stop these fool-headed actions by others, I guess that’s not doing me a lot of good, is it?

Sorry if I sound kind of depressed about this. I’m not really — I’m annoyed. Annoyed that housing prices are so high in this neighborhood I love. [It's happened since the local school opened and was immediately so wonderful.] Annoyed that our Metro government is so obsessed with this convention center. Annoyed that my realistic choice is moving so far away.

Sidenote: You know how as you get older, the negative aspects of your personality seem magnified? OK, well anyway, that’s my mom’s theory, and I have seen it ring true in a number of people I know. I can’t decide if it’s that at some point we all say, The hell with it, I’m going to quit apologizing for who I am and just be me, or if we lose some of the social skills that enable us to mask our baser instincts when we’re young and looking for a mate. Either way, keep in mind that this post may begin exposing those judgmental aspects of my personality that I have long preferred to share only with those who have to love me.

Across the political spectrum, I keep seeing people wanting to dictate how the rest of us live. I could make an argument how these authoritarian tendencies don’t make sense for either liberals or conservatives, but both camps are full of people who want to tell the rest of us what to do.

• People who want to forbid gay marriage
• People who want to keep the uniform policy in Metro schools
• People who want to restrict adoption to certain groups
• People who want to subject pregnant women to drug testing

I could go on. But without a scorecard, I wouldn’t necessarily know which side of the aisle some of those ideas originate on. And I think a lot, if not all of them, are well intentioned by most of their proponents.

But. [And here's where I'm going to go off the rails. Forewarned and all that.]

Did NONE of these people grow up during the Cold War? Did NONE of them spend much time studying authoritarian dictatorships? And really, maybe that is the thing. I can say I’m a bit of a geek on this front. I was a European history major who went to college in 1989. Seriously, what a great time to be that kind of person. History was happening every single freakin’ day. Worldwide political movements that began at the beginning of the 20th century and shaped most of the major events of that span were ending right as I was studying them. I spent a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about both National Socialism in Germany and communism, as it was embodied in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe.

And a few tiny, tiny things I took away from all of that are ideas like this:

• We are all a lot closer to 1984 that we’d care to admit.
• Evil is banal, and it’s all around us.
• We are it.
• A thousand tiny choices really do add up to monumental misdirections in the course of human events.
• Saying, “It doesn’t affect me,” is the worst kind of ignorance. They really are coming for us next.

I don’t mean to compare individual political positions people take today in the United States with Nazism or with Soviet-style communism. [Another soapbox, another time: Why it really is both stupid and bad to call someone who disagrees with you a "Nazi."] But I do mean to say that the little things matter. And I don’t understand how thinking people can look themselves in the eye and say, “Well, I just know better than you on this point.” Or, “It works for me. You shouldn’t have a problem with it.” Or perhaps worst of all, “It’s for the common good.”

The tyranny of the majority is very real. In this country, in ways big and small every day, we allow a misdirected sense of “democracy” to run roughshod over freedom. Taking a vote and forcing the 49 percent to live by the dictum of the 51 percent isn’t about liberty. It’s about exerting authority. I reject your authority over me. That’s not what I signed up for. I signed on for a country that celebrates individual freedom, liberty and respect for each other. That your rights end where mine begin and vice versa.

I’m not a political insider. I am friends with a number of political insiders, but truth be told, we don’t talk politics all that often. You can’t help but know political types when you live in East Nashville, really. You can’t throw a stick around here without clobbering a whole mess of them. Bless their hearts, I mean, my friends.

So my post here isn’t informed by any inside perspective. Here’s what it is informed by:

• I’ve voted in every local and state Democratic primary since I was 18.
• I’ve worked any number of state and local Democratic campaigns.
• I’ve even given money to a few, but I’m a small-money donor.
• I like to sit on the sidelines and pontificate.

You’ve been warned. This is all worth what you paid for it.

Who is the Tennessee Democrat?
I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell the TNDP is doing. Wait, that’s wrong. It seems to be doing exactly what the national GOP is doing — casting about for an identity. Flailing, I would say.

I’m not sure what the big mystery is. I’ve lived in TN all but about 6 months of my life, and here’s my understanding of the Democratic identity here:

• Ds fight for the little guy.
• Ds like small business, teachers and the working class.
• Most Ds here tend to be pro-life, or pro-choice with lots of restrictions, but they have little interest in spending much, if any, time legislating or pontificating on that.
• They’re tough on crime but not draconian.
• They’re very good at building roads.
• They take a lot of pride in our state’s fiscal management and want to see continued careful oversight.
• They may or may not be union folks. I suspect that depends on the district.

Now, that’s not how I’d describe my personal politics. But if you had to stuff all the elected Democrats in this state in one kettle, that would hold most of them.

There are a decent number of liberal Democrats in TN, with many of them [but certainly not all] concentrated in our cities. Outside a very few TN House districts, the TNDP can’t expect to field really liberal candidates and win.

What is the TNDP doing today?
It seems to be reorganizing itself, sort of. Since the November election, the TNDP executive committee elected a new chairman, Chip Forrester, in what seems to have been some kind of leadership coup. The “establishment” favored Charles Robert Bone. [I suspect many of my political friends favored Bone, but I'm more likely to know what they did over spring break. Just a guess on my part.]

Since Forrester came in, he’s hired [what, 6 weeks ago?] and then accepted the resignation [today] of a new TNDP treasurer, Bill Freeman. Who, as it turns out, had more Republican than Democratic ties. Two quick thots: If his job was accounting, I don’t care if he’s a Communist. If his job was fundraising, WTF? Seems there was some weight toward the latter, so I’m not sure I understand the initial appointment.

But what I really want to say is this:
I don’t care who the TNDP chairman is, nor the treasurer.

Here’s what I care about: In a year that saw the Democratic party make tremendous strides nationally, we fell way backwards. I don’t know whose fault that was, but I want it fixed. I’m glad to help fix it, but you big wigs need to figure out who’s really going to show some leadership. Because I’m going to be pissed off if we screw around and waste the next two years. We have a serious issue in the Tennessee General Assembly. The GOP now controls both houses, and I’m seeing painfully little interest on their part in actually passing legislation that helps people. They seem mostly interested in regulating people’s personal lives. [You explain to me how that's "conservative" and we'll both know.]

I want to help a TNDP that knows how to win some seats back in 2010. And that has a giantslayer of a gubernatorial candidate ready. I don’t want to see a bitter primary struggle for any Democratic office next year. We can’t afford it.

I’m listening. Time’s a-wasting.