Conspiracy or not, call off the mob

Now that the vote's in, let's call off sending that lynch mob to St. Louis, shall we?

Seriously, I don't care where you came down on the arena. Some of us were for it, some weren't and some will never be.

But an explanation that arena supporters floated was a paranoid but masterful bit of propaganda, don't you think?

See, Enterprise Rent-A-Car's opposition to a new downtown arena was not based solely on greedy self-interest, arena supporters told us.

No, the way they spun it, Enterprise boss man Andrew Taylor led a nefarious St. Louis conspiracy intending to thwart Kansas City's dreams.

Frankly, I'm not much for conspiracy theories, unless Mel Gibson's in the movie.

Let's face it. Other than Enterprise having a longstanding business relationship with its p.r. firm, St. Louis-based Fleishman-Hillard, there was nothing there.

There was no St. Louis conspiracy.

Still, Enterprise played right into the spin by spending a ton to defeat Question 1.

Savvy arena supporters took that and knew exactly which button to push with an electorate that trusts outsiders even less than City Hall insiders.

What effect the “take-that, St. Louis” sentiment had on the final numbers we may never know. I haven't heard of an exit poll we can rely on for that answer.

However, my own suspicion is this: The belief that a St. Louis cabal was plotting against Kansas Citians played well. If nothing else, it convinced many to go to the polls who might otherwise have stayed at home.

Now that it's all over, two thoughts worth considering:

First, St. Louis is a good town, despite the bad rap it got in this election. Try the Italian food, by all means. Why, even the folks who run Enterprise are surely decent people, in spite of their misleading advertising campaign.

Of course, I've heard some of you grumble about whether you want to do business with Enterprise again. However, even I, an arena supporter who was put off by those ads, can find it in my pocketbook, if not my heart, to forgive and forget. This may have something to do with the half-off car rental coupon that came in my junk mail recently.

Plus, just to show the folks in St. Louis that there are no hard feelings, I am tempted to drive over and help cheer on the Cardinals. Why not? You hate to stay here all year and never witness a major- league baseball game that mattered.

Now onto Point Two, which is more serious.

I don't know about you, but my sense of the anti-Enterprise campaign had the sickly whiff of victimhood.

Implicit in much of the spin on talk radio and elsewhere was that, if the arena won, it meant little KC had overcome adversity and beat up the big bad bullies from out of town.

Conversely, a loss meant evil had prevailed and the villain had thwarted Kansas Citians' true will.

Playing the victim is a strategy that works well in partisan politics. The Dems and Repubs have used it to their advantage.

But when you're trying to build up a city, it's a loser's mentality that will eventually work against you.

It distorts reality. Because rarely is it a matter of us versus them. More often, it is us versus us.

You want proof? Get ready for Bistate II. That's going to be a fight we can really call our own.

To reach Mike Hendricks, call (816) 234-7708 or send e-mail to mhendricks@kcstar.com.