Bring your tinfoil hat
if you accept a ride to the polls from Uber or Lyft. If you haven’t already been indoctrinated by the prime-time media onslaught financed by the two Transportation Network Companies via their Ridesharing Works for Austin Political Action Committee, I trust the corporations will take advantage of this one last opportunity to get you in tune with their goal of operating in a regulatory environment which favors the two multibillion dollar San Francisco companies to the detriment of what is best for Austin and its populace.
Seeing these offers of free rides to the polls, I immediately recollected my youth in south Texas, when ranchers drove flatbed stake trucks carrying their employees to the county seat on election day. Back then their reward for doing their civic duty took the form of galvanized tubs of icy bottles of beer strategically located near the polls, but out of sight and sound. How little has changed in ensuing decades. In Austin, the line forms to the right to take Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s shilling. Former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell signed on as the titular head of the PAC. Recent candidate for Texas House District 49 Huey Rey Fischer is now Deputy Outreach Director for the PAC. The list goes on — Joe Bowen, Pedro Villalobos, Patrick McDonald…. They all signed non-disclosure agreements regarding their compensation, but the rumored low end of the range is $10,000. Typically these contracts include a bonus for winning. Don’t spend it yet, guys.
