Tag: civic participation

Supporting Our Leaders

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As I read so many posts today celebrating the victory of Barack Obama in the presidential race I worried that I might appear to be a disheartened McCain supporter because of my lack of enthusiasm for the outcome of the race. First of all, I am neither disheartened nor a McCain supporter. Secondly, my lack of enthusiasm stems from the fact that I fully expected the results of the presidential race to look much like they did yesterday. On the other hand, I consider today to be a very good day to talk about our political process and specifically our role as citizens now that the voting is over.

Yesterday, before any results were in, DownsizeDC.org declared a state of permanent preparedness for impeachment. They argued that we should be ever watchful of our leaders and be prepared to impeach them as soon as they give grounds for impeachment. (To be fair, they indicated that neither candidate had yet given such grounds.) They stated that they considered it a mistake that they had not previsouly supported impeachment for our current president. Overcoming my initial rejection of this stance I realized that there was some logic behind their position – especially regarding elected officials at the federal level. I would like to approach the issue from the opposite direction. Now that the votes have been cast and our representatives chosen, it is the duty and responsibility of every citizen to support their elected officials and encourage them to live up to the best of their potential. Slate illustrates that idea with Six Ways Obama Can Show He’ll Be a Different Kind of President.

We need to start with the hope that our leaders live up to the best vision of themselves that they presented – that would mean hoping that Obama lives up to his lofty rhetoric concerning bipartisanship and transparency. Perhaps more importantly we should be supporting our local representatives. Now is not the time for all of us who have been talking about candidates and issues through the election to sit back and leave those who have been elected alone to do their jobs. We need to reach out to them, whether we supported or opposed them, and offer our support. We must be willing to meet with them, share our ideas, and encourage them in the difficult tasks that they will face.

We must start with the assumption that each of them is a patriot who wants what’s best for their fellow citizens – even if we don’t see eye to eye on what the best looks like.

Tags 2008, Anything but Neutral, civic participation, elections

life Local

Go Vote Now

I went to my polling place this morning and the lines were so long (at 7:00 am) that I decided to go to work first. My first thought was that maybe I didn’t need to remind anyone to vote today but then I thought better of it. Everyone go vote as early as you can (especially in the Bountiful 18th Precinct) so the lines won’t be so long at 6:00 pm when I will go try again. Due to sickness and the subsequent catching up I was unable to participate in early voting last week so now I will be trying to go after work. I will be waiting in line if necessary.

I talked to Scott, one of my coworkers who voted this morning, and he noticed that one of the things that made the lines go slower was having people standing at the voting booths reading about the issues (such as the Constitutional Amendments). Having done his research in advance, he was able to cast all his votes and leave while the people at the other booths before him were still making their choices. Based on that, perhaps the Lieutenant Governor might provide a one page summary of those types of issues that will be on the ballot so that people can read while they stand in line rather than holding up the line by reading at the booth.

While you are waiting to vote, go have a look at Jordy’s list of potential ways to choose who you vote for.

Tags 2008, amendments, ballot initiatives, civic participation, connections, elections, voting

Local

Robert Moultrie Question 5 Response

Post author By David
Post date October 30, 2008
No Comments on Robert Moultrie Question 5 Response

I got a belated response today from Robert Moultrie to the questions I sent. Rather than give him his own forum here – especially considering the length of his answers – I will only link to his new blog for anyone who is interested in learning more about him as a candidate. On the other hand, I wanted to respond to a couple of things he said in answer to my final question, “What is the most important political task for voters to undertake?”

To educate themselves! But this, in and of itself, will make no difference until voters begin to vote their consciences, and stop voting because they are afraid of the “other guy.” . . . But the truth is that we are largely getting the government we are voting for. People talk around the water cooler year after year . . . But after all the talk, after all the listening to the news, after all the thought and emotion that goes into forming what they believe, when the rubber meets the road they do not vote for what they think is right, but instead vote based on fear of the other guy.

I agree with this overall. Certainly there are some people who honestly believe that John McCain is right (to make some easy assumptions about how Utah is/will be voting) even though he was not even among their top two choices in February (he was 3rd among Republicans and probably received fewer votes than even Hillary Clinton in the primaries). But despite the true believers who vote for him, many who vote for him here will do so only to avoid “throwing away their vote” or supporting a Democrat. Where I disagree with Mr. Moultrie is when he goes on to say:

Our Founding Fathers gave the people one time, just one, to have a voice in their Government: and that is when they vote.

To make that assertion is to imply that not only should there be no lobbying (which many people would agree on) but no contacting your leaders to provide input on issues of importance to you. That attitude suggests that we should vote in November, and then watch our representatives only to collect data on whether they deserve to be reelected in the future. I don’t believe that, and I can’t believe that Mr. Moultrie does either. There are ways to have our voices heard in government between election cycles and we need to avail ourselves of those opportunities on issues of importance.

Tags civic participation, government, House 20

Local State

Ask the Candidates (and Share Their Answers)

Post author By David
Post date October 23, 2008
No Comments on Ask the Candidates (and Share Their Answers)

In an effort to not lose all inertia, I am publicly inviting anyone who has any interest in Anything But Neutral to choose a political race in Utah and ask the candidates of that race a few questions of their own choosing. When you get responses (or by Friday, October 31st even if not all the candidates have responded) post the responses you receive somewhere that people can read the responses – preferable somewhere that people are free to share their own thoughts after reading the answers. I have asked the following questions from the candidates in House District 20:

In your opinion, what is the most important job of a state legislator?
What is the most important challenge or issue for the state of Utah?
What is the most important challenge or issue for House District 20?
Based on the best information you have, what ideas do you have to tackle the important issue(s) you identified in questions 2 and 3?
What is the most important political task for voters to undertake?

Most of the people who have expressed interest have their own blogs where they could post such answers. Some examples of others who have done this include Utah Rattler (House 20) and Thad Van Ry (Senate 23). If you prefer not to post the answers on your own site I would be willing to post answers for other races.

Tags 2008, Anything but Neutral, civic participation, elections, House 20, voting

culture State

Like Sheep . . .

I have been noticing the various political yard signs popping up as we approach the general election and based on what I have seen I am beginning to think that in Utah, the most politically active non-candidates are almost universally leaning Democratic. Considering that Utah is still expected to heavily favor the Republican tickets at all levels I thought of the phrase from Isaiah to describe Utah politics:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. ( Isaiah 53:6)

So many people here will not take the time to be civically active and informed, but a small portion of them (50% in a good year) will go to the polls and perform their civic duty of selecting anyone with an R next to their name.

Tags civic participation, elections, parties, scriptures

State

Get Ready to Vote

One of the things I hear about in the news are the stories of people being turned away from polling places for not being properly registered to vote or for showing up at the wrong location. In Utah we have a chance to vote with a provisional ballot where there is confusion, but we also have the chance to minimize the confusion. At the website of the Lieutenant Governor you can find out if you are registered to vote and see where your poling place is located. Go there now and confirm your status as a registered voter by entering some basic information about yourself (name, DOB, county, & house number). If you are registered to vote where you currently live you will see your polling place displayed as well as your party affiliation, otherwise you will be instructed to contact your county clerk.

The great advantage of going now is that if you are not properly registered you still have two weeks to get to the county clerk’s office and get registered in time to vote in the general election. If you are registered you will be able to view a sample ballot for your precinct. The sample ballot contains links to information on many of the candidates and issues (such as the amendments I have been writing about). This gives you one month to get informed before casting your vote if you have not already started to do so.

Tags civic participation, elections

Local

Test the Candidates

When I talked to Kyle Roberts the other night I discussed how important communication was for me when I look at candidates and elected officials. It has been very exciting to see as Kyle has begun to implement some of my suggestions to open more channels of communication for the residents of House District 20. He is making more use of his blog (which he had before we talked) and he has added the option for residents to get his blog updates by email (or a variety of other means). As I have seen him implementing things I had suggested I realized that one of the things that voters can do in choosing a candidate to support is to test the candidates.

Go beyond reading what the candidates say and treat them like elected officials. If you like to ask questions or make suggestions to your representatives you should be doing that with the candidates. The key to representative government is citizen involvement – early and often. If we just vote and then stay out of the political process until the next election cycle the end result will be a government that is out of touch and out of control. It becomes dysfunctional like Washington D.C.

I like this discovery and I plan to make use of it in all races of interest to me in the future. I also like being able to follow the efforts of other people who are proactive in contacting candidates. Thad Van Ry provides a good example of that as he sent questions to the candidates for Senate District 23 (my senate district) and then posted their answers. (That is his intro to the series of answer posts.)

Tags candidates, civic participation, communication, elections

National State

Politics Goes Local

The Senate passed the bailout bill (that they had no business voting on) and with an added 315 pages of pork they might be exposing the real reason that the House did not pass it on Monday. All that extra sugar coating is likely to make the bitter pill go down easier. This reminds me why watching Washington politics is so depressing.

On a happier note, I met with Kyle Roberts last night and really enjoyed getting to know him better. I look forward to helping him to become my representative in the Utah Legislature.

I’m sure I will have some things to rant about on the national level, but I am going to focus on state and local issues for a while (like the proposed amendments to the Utah Constitution) and quit paying attention – as much as possible – to the coming Obama administration and the continued shenanigans that will remain rampant inside the beltway.

Tags bailout, civic participation, House 20, Utah

culture life meta State

Make “the Silent” a Minority

Post author By David
Post date October 1, 2008
14 Comments on Make “the Silent” a Minority

Recently my niece approached me to ask questions about politics. She’s a young teenager, years short of being able to vote, but she wants to become informed and involved so that she could positively participate by the time she can vote. The conversation served as a reminder to me of how important it is for our young people to be able to obtain information on political issues that is not tainted by the rancor that often pervades political discussions. In other words we need a clearinghouse for civil civic conversation. I decided that I wanted to form an organization that would work for that purpose.

When I read the plea at Ladies Logic regarding our atrocious levels of participation in Utah (and remembered my own pleas to encourage greater levels of participation here), I realized that the time to act was now and that the need was not only for our youth who are approaching or recently passing the age where they can vote but also for every citizen who can’t bring themselves to really participate in the dirty game of politics – many of whom simply stay out of the discussion and vote without becoming well informed on the issues. We need to reach “the silent majority.”

The group I will be forming will be open to, even encouraging of, participation by people of all political perspectives. The only requirement for participation is a commitment to avoid the playground politics of name calling and guilt by association. The aim of the group will be to draw people out of the silent majority until the silent become the minority by fostering civil dialog between people of differing perspectives. We will not aim to come to a consensus except the consensus that wider participation is better than narrower participation. I would like the group to seek to engage other group members in public discussion of issues so that people who have been silent will have a chance to be exposed to various positions on important issues without the likelyhood of being personally insulted by those who disagree with them. I also would like the group, individually and collectively, to engage in discussing issues with candidates for office and elected officials with an emphasis on local candidates and officials and a balance of local, state, and national issues.

In addition to my own energy, and knowledge I need the energy and experience of others who can help me to spread the word, engage effectively with public officials, organize group efforts, and generate ideas to further these aims.

I would ask anyone who believes in the importance of broad political participation, especially if you are in Utah, to please contact me publicly or privately to help me get this off the ground. Leave me comments or drop me an email if you have interest in participating, ideas about what can and should be done, or if you know of people who could help me in this.

Tags Anything but Neutral, civic participation, connections, discourse, elections, issues, voting

culture

A Universal Dream

Is there anyone who could not support the dream shared by Jess:

it’s my dream that the citizens of our country renew their interest in politics half as much as they love the olympic games. . .

to preserve the posterity of politics in our country, the greatest country in the world, we need to start caring about the leadership of our country like we care about the olympics. that surge of patriotism we feel when a united states athlete wins a medal in the olympics – i wish we’d experience some of that same feeling when we are in the process of selecting our next mayor, governor or president.

in turn, the leadership of our country must train like athletes – they need to be inspirational. they need to be focused. they need to be uniting. they must never give up. they must aspire for greatness . . . if they could accomplish those things, we would offer our support . . . because they are AMERICAN, not because they are a democrat or a republican. we’d stand with them because we’re proud of their accomplishment . . .

(spelling and punctuation original)

If anyone can’t get behind that kind of a dream they probably should not be a citizen of this country. Unfortunately, even if Michael Phelps has political interest he can’t run for President until 2020 – we can’t afford to wait that long.

Tags 2008, citizenship, civic participation, Olympics, sports, swimming