Yesterday was election day in a lot of states and municipalities across the country, and while some elections had extenuating circumstances with political reverberations that spread across the country, most were just local affairs having to do with bread and butter issues like schools, roads, and who will lead the city or town government for the next four years. In my hometown of Rockford, Illinois, it wasn't even that big an election day, as the most important elections involved the filling of a vacant aldermanic seat, the election of school board members and community college trustees, and a sales tax referendum which extended the city's current level of taxation for another five years in order to fund infrastructure projects.
Now before I state my piece, I should mention that my hometown, like so many municipalities across the country, is suffering severe budget shortfalls, and as a result the school board has proposed massive cuts to education to balance the budget, including closing a number of schools and curtailing many programs aimed at bettering the lives of students. In addition, while the city has done a number of road construction projects, many of the city's roads resemble the surface of the moon thanks to the harsh winter and the number of potholes which have sprung up like weeds. To make matters worse, my hometown is a bastion of Tea Party paradise, and even uttering the word tax is equivalent to insulting dear family members with an expletive-filled tirade.
Nevertheless, I went to my polling place yesterday to select a new school board member to my district and to save my city's highways. And while I can say there was good news in my local election in that the resolution to extend the local sales tax for infrastructure projects passed by an overwhelming margin of 74% to 26% in favor of extension, I have to report the disturbing news that out of 85,000 eligible voters in my hometown, only 15% of voters came out to the polls.
Now granted, local elections aren't necessarily as exciting as picking the next President of the United States or your Senator, Congressperson or governor, and I have been guilty in the past of ignoring my local elections. But the reality is that your local election has a much more direct impact in your immediate life that what goes on on Washington over foreign policy in Libya or Yemen. That's not to discount events in the Beltway or the state mansions, but the events which happen in those places usually birth their impetus in the local municipalities. By ignoring your local election, you're left at the mercy of those in the community who took the time to make their voices heard. Now maybe you'll get lucky and find a mayor, county board, or school board who is truly progressive and take the first steps towards creating universal healthcare, giving poor children free school breakfasts and lunches, or protecting the rights of workers by promoting union benefits, or you may roll craps and find a local board all too willing to kowtow to the local large employer who wants to build their facility at taxpayer expense while at the same time lobbying for right-to-work laws which make it easier to fire workers, or make it easier to set up a polluting factory or mass-industrial slaughterhouse which dumps toxic junk into the city's drinking supply, or worse yet, elect religious zealots who want to change the school curricula to state that God created the dinosaurs during Biblical times to smite and eat the satanic homosexuals and Muslims who besmirched the word of God. (I know that the creation of Islam occurred several hundred years after the time of Jesus Christ, but I am just making a point about how local government can be hijacked.) I understand a lot more easily how a group like the Tea Party can create havoc during the elections, because a lot of their platform was created in these local municipalities where most the electorate didn't bother to vote. And there's no excuse for saying, "I'm too busy," "none of it matters anyway," or "all the politicians are a bunch of bums," because these elections and these issues are happening right in your backyard.
As we saw last fall in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, and last night in Wisconsin, even local elections have huge consequences. So while you see and approve/disapprove of what is going on in the Beltway, don't forget to participate in what's happening in your city, town, or neighborhood. You may not necessarily get the government you like, but by not participating in the political process, you most certainly will get the government you deserve.