Mid-Term Mania – Part 1

While spending time as a campaign staffer for a few years, I’ve become conditioned to expect the craziness that overtakes the politicians and activists every June. It is understood in the business that a campaign cycle truly begins six months before an election with the pushes gaining momentum the closer you to get to the magical month of November. It is a high stakes game where you, the voter, are the pawns. The goal isn’t your support; it’s your vote. Once you cast that vote, you tend to become a number, a statistic, an activated tool in their arsenal to gain and hold power.

I’m not so jaded that I believe this of every politician. I don’t. I’ve built some really good relationships with some very good elected officials who actually care about you, their constituent. Overall, even the good ones have to get caught up in the game to stay in office in order to represent your best interest.

This coming November election is probably the single most important election in our recent history. So much is at stake, and the gains made by President Donald Trump will be a memory should we allow the small minority of his detractors to convince us to stay home. It is a tactic I know well and one that as a campaign staffer, I refuse to use.

If you create enough chaos and confusion, voters will become disgusted and frustrated. When they become disgusted and frustrated, they do not vote. If they do not vote, the low turnout will go to the Democrat party candidates. This is why you have elections in May for school board and city councils. These are non-partisan races that no one pays attention. Since they don’t declare a party on the ballot, the Democrats have traditionally loaded those councils and school boards up with their people and then used the party machinery to turn out their voters while Republicans are at home looking at their tax bills wondering why school taxes and city taxes are sky high again this year.  It’s a reality that tends to smack us in the face when our appraisals come out.

How does that work? It’s a simple formula. The Central Appraisal District is made up by your county’s taxing entities. The board of directors is probably the Achilles heel of the Texas property tax system. They are selected and elected by the tax entities. Given the selection process, their loyalty typically (and understandably) lies with the tax entities.

I digress only to make the point that each election has consequences. The Parties and campaigns know this and so should you, the voter.

Should you elect to vote on personality, media spin, false polls, fake news or any of the other 30 second sound bytes marketed to you via social media, you are doing yourself and others a grave disservice.

All elections should be about policy and what has worked and what is working for your local community. Just because someone coaches my kid in baseball does not mean that they will be a good city council member or Judge. It means they have the heart for service, and that does count, but until you drill down on what they believe personally on issues of policy, you really have no way of knowing whether your support of that person is justified. Too often, I have seen people vote for someone because they outspent an opponent. Consequently, I have seen the result of that vote benefiting the lobbyists and political cronies of that candidate they deemed rich enough to be a good legislator. How’s that luxury tax exemption on yachts working for you now?

In this series, I hope to share with you some of the policies that are actually working for the better of all Americans without a partisan spin.

Together, we can enter the ballot booth in November with better clarity of why we are voting the way we do.