HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Feb 26, 2004 I’ve been a Registered Republican since 1954, I’ve been a card carrying, dues paying member of the Republican Party for nearly as many years. At the invitation of our Republican County Chairman I decided to attend my first local political meeting in nearly 50 years. They were having a Reporter from the Regional Daily Newspaper speak on how the press handles political events and news. Since I now fantasize myself as a Political Commentator I decided to attend, to report my findings to our Useless Knowledge Conservative Readers. Grass roots politics is something we rarely hear about. My first impression was “You got to be kidding, these people can’t possibly be political activists”. I must admit I went to the meeting with a preconceived bias. I’ve attended hundreds of meetings, usually with the same results, nothing gets accomplished and a lot of people get angry. As the meeting progressed things got a little more interesting. The Reporter didn’t make a long speech as a matter of fact he didn’t make any speech. He invited questions from the floor, I say floor there were some 20 people in the meeting. At first the meeting seemed to me like a bust considering the number of attendees. Then it occurred to me everyone of these people is actively involved. As the meeting progressed the questions became rather interesting. They were all about local issues, County Commissioners. Township issues, school funding, street repair things of interesting to those in attendance.. I don’t recall one question about national events. I was surprised very little time was spent, Democrat bashing. Nothing was said about any one having an affair, no DUI ’s. None of the usual political garbage we hear and write about in the national campaigns. Most of the conversation was about how those involved in local politics could get a message out to the public. How to get Letters to the Editors published. How to challenge an article they felt was misrepresenting an issue. How could they challenge their elected officials. Usually one or two persons will dominate the questions in a meeting, not so in this case each had a question or two, no one person attempted to control the meeting. I must say the Reporter was very effective, he left no question unanswered. As I have said many times all things are evolutionary. So it is with politics. Some of us who have been involved in the political process for years forget it all starts at the local level. There is an intellectual and physical process that must occur before any politician reaches their goal, there are no exceptions. If you aren’t willing to learn the trade, don’t attempt the challenge. Politics is a tough business with few successes and many failures. Only the determined survive. This night I saw a very determined group of people. I would recommend any one who has any degree of interest in politics to attend a local political function at least once. Local politics is the mortar that binds the foundation of our political system together. I didn’t stay for the nuts and blots part of the meeting. I have no intention of becoming involved in local issues, their doing fine without my help. I had gone expecting a “Get out the Vote for Bush rally”. It became clear to me there are other issues of equal or more importance. The snow that must get plowed, there are potholes that need filling, that street light on the corner that’s been out for a month now. It doesn’t take a genius to box up a Widget factory and ship it to Mexico. It takes a real man to get a street light or pothole fixed in midwinter. I have no doubt the Bush Rally will come on time and will get equal attention but in the meantime they have more important issues. Keeping their own house in order. I would like to thank the members of the Local Republican Party for allowing me to attend. I also thank the Reporter who so enthusiastically offered his political expertise ------------ About the Author: Ken Hughes is a retired businessman. A political junkie who's passion is the re-education of Liberals and Term Limits for Congress. He has had very little sucess at either. Email Ken Hughes: uncleken@sbcglobal.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
