Posted On: Tuesday - January 16th 2018 7:08PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Curmudgeonry
They say "all politics is local". I don't really know what "they" are talking about, so just keep that in mind. This post is a short one about local elections. I had written comments about some of the worst of the US Senators and the fact that many in the R-wing of The Party get elected because the "R" is next to their names, but prior to that, not many people come out for the primary. Voting for a US Senator is not a local election of course, and not really much of a State election anymore (though it's still held there) due to US Constitution Amendment XVII (that's 17 for those of you in Buena Vista) ratified 100 years back (EVERY SINGLE TIME!). These Senate elections are basically national elections nowadays, with the money (and even candidates, cough, Hildabeast, cough, cough) coming from all over.
So, yeah, I'm not writing about the big ones, but the primaries are held at times such that, except for special widely-publicized cases of underdogs trying to kick out long-entrenched incumbents (cases like that), only those actually interested in politics will show up to vote. This reminded me of some thoughts on our local elections. Local elections might also be held at odd times of the year, or at least in November, but on those odd-number years. These are the ones where the people voting are mostly interested parties, and this works against the regular taxpayer who wishes the local governments will both leave him along AND not keep grabbing more money each year.
As discussed here and mentioned a bit previously here, the library bonds are a good example. Besides the usual tax leaches in certain parts of town (you may or may not know who you are) it's the people with the entrenched interests who are going to make a big get-out-the-vote effort. Since the total votes cast will be fairly small, unless the vote does happen to coincide with a presidential election, these people have a great influence. Just take the unneeded renovation of the libraries, as linked to. The library employees and their complete extended families up to 3rd cousins twice-removed are probably voting at above 90% - it's their livelihood ... based on our labor. Lots of times, in fact, we might even be laboring to support them on the day the votes are cast, hence missing a chance to say "hell no, you make plenty of my money already!"
Of course, it's not just the libraries but lots of local interests and local spending that work out like this. Just like on the national level though, most don't really care until they are plain getting their asses kicked, figuratively or literally.
This brings up a certain fairly near-by neighbor. There are lots of otherwise friendly and stand-up people that you just don't want to talk politics to. The one in question is not all that. I wouldn't be talking enough to even bring up anything political, so just as well there, as this neighbor is obviously a hard-core member of the ctnrl-left. How do I know that? From the signs at the front of the yard each time there is a local election that I often otherwise wouldn't know about. They are very, very helpful. I just read the sign, try to memorize the name or issue, and vote against whatever the hell the sign says! This has been working out well for years.
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