Yes, I’m taking this one step at a time. So many people find this whole election process overwhelming and they are used to depending on legacy media to provide the information they need. For the record, that has never actually worked out well – media doesn’t make money off of boring council meetings and candidate analysis. But now the media is worst than useless for even big races – and most people were never taught even the most rudimentary parts of political research despite the fact that they would grow up to be voters.
Don’t get me started about not teaching kids to balance a checkbook!
Anyway, yes, I’m going slow and covering the very basics. I’ll publish a book later this year doing the same but for now, I’m trying to fill in the gap where most people get stuck – how to find all this stuff and then how to make sense of it.
Some people are naturals at this – I’m not. Seriously, two advanced degrees in Political Science and I’d rather have teeth pulled than do candidate analysis. But while I’m happy as a lark studying political systems, that’s not where the rubber meets the road. Representative governance is like any other job search – you have to slog through all the resumes and all the nonsensical cover letters and the seriously strange references to find out that Bob is – or is not – the right man for the job.
That’s all candidacy really is – a job application. The people of the United States are the biggest HR department in history – scary, huh? It probably never was enough to just vote for a party and go home – and now it’s absolutely not enough. People, not parties, take office and do – or don’t do – the job. If your representative thinks you aren’t going to pay attention he or she is much more likely to do the politically expedient things that get them better donors but don’t represent you.
Sure, money talks – but it can’t vote. The remedy for the inclination of corruption is an attentive public. That sounds scarier than it is – being diligent doesn’t mean being on alert 24/7/365 – but it does mean showing up to work when necessary.
Yesterday, I showed you 25 offices in just my local election – and that may not be all of them. It didn’t include Alabama’s penchant for amending its state constitution, currently at around 948 total amendments (or my usual rant about the stupid 1901 Constitution!) which will continue in 2022. Yes, it’s stupid. Yes, we know. The point I’m digressing from is that there’s a LOT of stuff on an average ballot. Lots and lots of offices and a bunch of names per office, and in states like Alabama, other stuff to be considered and voted on. Little wonder people want to vote straight party and go home!
But that won’t work in a primary and it shouldn’t. The primary is about controlling the party that you want to have controlling the government. Who you select is often far more important in a primary than in the general election – especially in states with large majorities of one party or the other. These are the guys and gals you are hiring to work for you for the next few years – they should represent you and your local area, not whoever can donate the most money. The primary is critically important for making sure that you get the best representative possible.
And there’s a ton of them! Ack!
This is even more of a reason to go slow. You don’t have to study every candidate in every race in just a few hours – you’ll go crazy trying. So pick a race and start there!
That’s the key to controlling the mountain of information – most of it new and strange to those unused to the world of politics – necessary to make sense of this whole representative government thing. It’s just like eating a huge pie – one bite at a time, one piece every day – and before long the pie is gone and you wonder what the fuss was all about.
That’s today’s lesson – slow and steady wins the race. You got this far for a reason – I’m assuming it’s not my wry humor or that you lost a bet. You’re here because you want to make a change for the better in our wild and woolly political world and you’ve already realized there has to be something more effective than social media rants and marching in the streets. There is – it’s just not nearly as much fun. But voting for good candidates in the primary is the first and most critical step to getting our government back under our control.
One step at a time – a little each day – and you’ll be amazed how fast you learn things you didn’t even know were things and how quickly you get good at sizing up candidates. That starts by selecting a given race and finding out who those candidates are – then tomorrow, we’ll start finding out about those candidates.
One step at a time until we reach the top!
