Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill is credited with coining the phrase “All politics is local”. When he said that he meant that while those in Washington focus on grandiose plans for international diplomacy and sweeping national social change, the vast majority of voters cast their ballots based on how it will benefit their wallets, their jobs and their personal security. What Tip did not mean was that local government should be all things political. And yet, that is the direction that we are heading–as items that deal with national and state-level issues increasingly clutter up city council, county board and school board agendas.
Stymied at the national level and in the majority of statehouses around the country, Democrats and other liberal groups are recruiting candidates to run for usually, non-partisan, low-turnout local elections. The idea is to “effect change on a grassroots level”–and groom candidates that can move up the political ladder. But these party activists have no interest in the actual governance of their municipality. They are silent on issues like zoning, street repair projects, garbage collection schedules and even entire annual budgets. It is only when their resolution asking the body to “take a stand against partisan redistricting” or their non-binding referendum to no longer enforce drug laws comes up for a vote that you realize they are even on the board.
And such referenda and resolutions bog down meetings–as members with opposing political views engage in lengthy debates about election results in other parts of the state, enforcement policies on national borders 2000 miles away, state corrections policies and competing medical studies on the effects of plants on the human body. None of which are the purview of a city council, a county board or a school board. The last two Winnebago County Board meetings featured hours of debate on the wording of referenda questions on redistricting and recreational marijuana use–neither of which were going to change any county ordinances.
Several supervisors correctly called into question why the Board was even discussing such items–as it is not “county business”. They then rightly abstained from voting on them–which in the case of the “legalize pot for all” referendum meant it failed to get on the November ballot.
If we are to prevent City Hall, the County Courthouse and the School District Office Building from becoming the same partisan houses of discord and dysfunction as seen in state capitols and in Washington, it is in our best interests to vote for candidates that actually want to be local politicians.
