Congratulations Summit County on the reelection of the disease that has plagued the Summit School District Board of Education the past few years. The group will continue teaching critical race theory, its equity policy, a social justice emphasis and overt racism in our schools. Be prepared for these four board members to indoctrinate, not educate, your kids.

While the rest of the country sees the Orwellian writing on the wall and refutes the dominance of Big Brother (George Orwell’s “1984”), Summit County has doubled down on its embrace of government-sponsored thought police and mind control. Summit County is a pretty place, but it’s pretty screwed up politically.

This woke agenda is the greatest threat to our beloved, independent, local character. Government intervention, overreach and regulation cause greater control of our everyday lives and give our elected officials more power than they deserve.

The Breckenridge Town Council and the Summit County commissioners are applying an age old Saul Alinsky (“Rules For Radicals”) maneuver used to manipulate the local population. First, they invent a fake crisis, then they ride in on their white horse and propose that only a government solution can solve the imaginary crisis.

By upsetting the local population’s equilibrium with the hypothetical crisis, in this case the housing situation that they claim is leaving local families literally out in the cold, they continue to add fuel to the fire by highlighting specific emotionally charged cases of straw-man locals unable to find adequate housing. They embellish the situation to make it sound more dire and inhumane than it actually is in order to whip the uninformed local voters into a frenzy.

Once the public’s equilibrium is off balance, the powers that be swoop in with the only solution possible in their minds: the government solution. Aided in the pitch by a complicit liberal media, the general public is convinced that their only recourse is the government answer — in this case, the short-term rental cap. No statistical data is provided or needed because the public’s emotional dislocation is so pronounced that they will accept any unwarranted government solution in order to return them to their normal mental balance.

This psychological manipulation is used by the left at all levels of government to promote their radical liberal agenda. You hear it from the Obama and Biden cabal as they lament congressional Republicans getting in their way. You hear it from Pontius Polis as he tries to override Colorado common sense with his socialist policies. And you hear it locally from Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue and Breckenridge Mayor Eric Mamula as they try to convince Summit County voters that they are smarter than Adam Smith (“The Wealth of Nations”).

Once the liberal powers that be have restored the public’s equilibrium with the government solution, they have eliminated all obstacles to implementing whatever public policy they desire. In this case, they have targeted short-term rentals as the scapegoat without presenting any evidence that they are the cause, much less that a cap is the solution. Where are the objective studies, empirical data or any research confirming short-term rentals as the culprit?

All they have is the emotional argument that rich second-home owners are preventing poor local families from keeping the American dream alive above 9,000 feet. If we can just get those greedy capitalistic second-home owners to forsake their coveted bottom line then all the locals who haven’t earned it can live happily ever after at the public trough.

This is what happens when elected representatives ignore 5 1/2 hours of public comment at the Sept. 28 Breckenridge Town Council meeting, with many emails to the town and letters to the editor opposing the cap.

But here’s the real reason behind the cap being cavalierly approved: It secures reelection votes for the council members and county commissioners. News flash: Thousands of second-home owners who are up in arms against the cap and who make up a significant portion of our taxpayers can’t vote here. It’s a classic case of taxation without representation.

The locals who benefit from the cap without having to pay a price will reelect all the local, liberal Democrats who have propped up this economic suicide. It’s all about retaining political power and control. It has nothing to do with what’s best for “we the people.”

Kim McGahey’s column “Conservative Common Sense” publishes biweekly on Tuesdays in the Summit Daily News. McGahey is a real estate broker, tea party activist and former Republican candidate. He has lived in Breckenridge since 1978. Contact him at kimmcgahey@gmail.com.