Guest Post by By Alpheus Madsen
A little while ago, I attended an Experimental Aviation Association meeting at the Heber Valley Airport in Heber, Utah. While I am not a pilot, I have had a lifelong interest in aviation, starting with a desire to follow in my Grandpa’s footsteps, who liked to make model airplanes and helicopters, and even made and flew an ultralight airplane at one point — and while I have never made progress in my efforts to design and build models, I was nonetheless very excited when I learned about the Experimental Aviation Association a couple of years ago, and have been able to attend meetings whenever I can!
Thus I found myself sitting in this particular meeting, expecting it to be kindof boring, because it was a panel of candidates for Mayor and City Council of a city I didn’t live in, and thus had no voting power for them; I was “merely” there for “moral support”. Nevertheless, I quickly found it fascinating! The pilots in our group asked pointed questions about the future of the airport, concerned with the monopoly of fuel that made prices too high, and worried about possibly losing hangars to construction as the airport is expanded to be able to accept the new traffic that has increased over the years. The candidates passionately answered the questions, often expressing frustration with a 7-year lawsuit that had held everything up and with a City Council that far too often voted to take no action rather than risk another lawsuit. It was interesting to see some of the political dynamics that affected the airport!
This meeting also reinforced some lessons I have learned over the years about Civics Activism. Sarah has rightly mocked the notion recently expressed by an anonymous-to-me post suggesting that “ways to take action” should be things like “touch grass” — things that undoubtedly help with peace of mind, but don’t really do all that much for the advancement of our cause! There are a lot of little things we can do to be active!
In this EAA meeting, for example, one of the candidates talked about how important it was for City Council to hear from the pilots. In particular, there is a committee or organization among the pilots who have regularly expressed their ideas to the City Council. Apparently, however, due to the inaction caused by the lawsuit, this pilot committee had become somewhat lax in their meetings — so she emphasized that now that the City Council is in a position to take action, the pilots need to rev up their meetings again and make sure their ideas are regularly shared!
But this isn’t just something that pilots can do. Several years ago, the Provo City Council tried to pass a local law making truancy illegal in City limits, in a way that would potentially interfere with home schooling parents, or parents bringing kids from out of town for a funeral visiting a park, or for parents who have an autistic child who had wandered from them, among other things. We showed up at City Hall and made our voices heard! In the aftermath, we discussed strategies for watching the City Council and making sure this didn’t happen again. One simple option we had was to have someone attend every City Council Meeting — after two or three meetings, someone from the Council would inevitably approach that person and ask “who are you, and why are you watching us?” Apparently, the Heber City Council isn’t the only council afraid of lawsuits and other controversies!
I have often thought about the time my wife, brother-in-law, and I were disappointed that the libertarian-ish person we voted for our Neighborhood Representative didn’t win that election over someone who was popular but less libertarian-ish in the community. On reflection, if we had known about this little “technique” and were motivated enough, we could have created our own “neighborhood” and gotten our own representation on City Council. I would even argue that this “representation” is far more representative of the organizers than elections of “representatives” based on geographical regions.
So, one important way we could affect things is to attend our local City Councils, School Boards, and other public meetings, and when necessary, make sure our voices are heard on controversial topics. But beyond that, there are so many more things we could do. We could run for School Boards and City Councils. We could sniff out all those little positions, like Library Activities Coordinator or City Festival Organizer, some paid, some volunteer, and serve in these positions — do not underestimate the importance of these positions, for enemies of America like to sniff out even the smallest positions of power, so they could push their anti-American agenda in even the most pro-American places — and as we fill these positions ourselves, we crowd out these other people.
And even more basic than all these, we can vote — especially in our local elections — and we can encourage others to vote. We could donate money to those we agree with, particularly in races where the major Political Party have given up on their own candidates as they ignore the importance of pushing against the opposition, and planting seeds that may later grow into future success. I have seen a lament over the inability to vote for a particular candidate for Sheriff who is running because he was charged for the “murder” of the guy trying to kidnap his daughter — and I have seen the observation that “you might not be able to vote for him, but you could always donate $20 for his campaign!”
Again, do not underestimate the importance of these small, local steps. Local politics is the politics that affect us the most, yet it’s the most neglected as well! And what’s more, it is our local politicians who “bubble up” into our State Houses and Senates, who go from Mayors to County Commissioners to Governors, who then go on to into our Federal House and Senate and Presidency. Our local positions are where our “champions” cut our teeth — and where we can become our own “champions” for our own causes!
Indeed, as much as I’ve both appreciated and admired the efforts of the Libertarian Party over the years (at the very least, in the years they haven’t been too crazy) — one of my greatest laments is how they have always neglected the State for the National positions, and the Local for the State. This has kept the Libertarian Party from growing its grass roots, and has prevented their influence from affecting the levels that affects us the most.
So start small! Grow where you can! And nourish our “sapling” politicians all around the country to become the “trees” of our philosophical “forest”!
(Thank you very much for the guest post, Alpheus. Sorry to get it up so late. –Holly)
According To Hoyt 
c4c
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Spot on.
And, it’s very important to write or talk to the office holders. Often they are neighbors, club members, service organization members, local business people, and/or church congregants. Frequently, before a measure of any significance comes to a vote, the people who will vote have been lobbied heavily and the result will be pretty much determined before it comes up in public. Arguing for a position on the day of the vote is usually months too late.
Pay attention further to your local ‘labor council’; trade union membership trends conservative; union leadership trends the opposite. Teachers and government and nursing labor organizations trend pretty uniformly ‘progressive’.
Law enforcement and corrections personnel unions trend ‘give us more money’ and support whichever elected folks agree to do that. (In large part, that’s what they’re supposed to do but the groups in CA have dragged pretty much all public sector compensation askew from a reasonable market rate. The ‘more money/benefits’ thing can be overdone.)
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Problem with that is, the folks actually doing the work get peanuts. The BigBucks are reserved for the bureaucratic deadwood in upper management. Sack about half the bureaucrats, you can cut taxes and pay more to the important people.
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Great post, and a great reminder: build up, over, and around.
From GamerGater and Campaigner wisdom, if you need to pull back because life is hammering you, it’s OK.
If you can, try to keep the connections alive, so you can re-enter and do your mite!
N.B. Check your local tax law. Some portion of your $$$ owed may be directed away from Stategov and to the *local political candidate of your choice*. Then tell everyone on Team GB&T you know.
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GB&T?
Gunnison Bank and Trust?
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Good, Beautiful, and True
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Good piece.
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The Great One (Heinlein, PBUH) recommended this very course of action in his Take Back Your Government.
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And don’t be afraid to politely pin down your local politicos. They tend to give non-answer answers to the media. Politely but firmly ask for clarification and specifics, or for a contact person who can give you specifics, if specifics are available.
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Also, regularly donate to local politicians according to the laws and limits in your are. Actually put your money where your political mouth is. Even a small donation check will get more attention than a business card.
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And of course my comment of a dozen minutes ago on “All politics is local” by “Tip” O’Neill ended up in Moderation Purgatory. But, most basically, he’s not wrong about that one much at all…
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But I find screaming at and beating my head against the brick wall to be so much more cathartic…
Don’t be like OrphanGeorge , be like the Dragon, or better yet just try, maybe you’ll like it.
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And you meet people. So it’s like a block party but you’re accomplishing something.
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Your city council must be significantly more interesting than mine.
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Or only has experience with very dull block parties.
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I meant the parts about getting together with fellow citizens, not necessarily the meeting part. :)
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And, on-topic only through guestposting, possible one of those sent. (Fiction, not the Faster Than Light one quite yet.) It’s not just ol’ Willie Pete that can absorb your time like a sponge, computer mail and related programs can be hungry little things too.
Good luck to Our Esteemed Blogmistress and all related, in this time of far-travel and assorted Internet uncertainties…
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As you say, showing up is 80% of the battle. Less than honest people squirm uncomfortably when they have eyes on them all the time.
Here’s another trick to add to the observation bit. Report the meetings from YOUR viewpoint publicly, on-line, on sites frequented by your municipality. For instance, we have 3 competing NGO websites for news in our town; one lefty, one conservative, and one who leans left but lies his butt off about it.
Two things will come out of this. One, people will know that you’re there taking notes and posting them. Two, by saying they’re your notes, and not official, you invite more discussion, including whether you understood what was being said. (With my poor hearing, I get some of the most INTERESTING and HILARIOUS mistakes when I’m taking notes.)
The biggest problem is, these things take time. And when you have a dozen different committee meetings every month in your town, and they take up an entire evening each, that’s too much for one person to cover. You need your own team working on this.
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Pondering this, and my wife’s reaction to a local ad, plus the NoKings ‘nonsense;
My wife poo-poos my interest in local politics and candidates as ‘not important’ because it doesn’t affect as many people. My response is that it is more likely to affect US, and this is where it all starts. There was an ad that has been on some of the Fox News affiliates that paints the local judge retention race in rather simplistic tones, but that DID catch LeeAnn’s attention, and now she reminds me daily to vote NO on these three judges. The Democrat ads supporting the judges is equally limited; they are all worthy because they “protect abortion”. Well, that isn’t likely to change MY mind, but it does reinforce the claims against them on other issues. And then I thought about how this compares with all the Strum Und Drang around the “No Kings Protests” ; a bunch of mostly made up outrage that gets a lot of TV (and internet) time. BUT. This is what the REALLY low information voters will see. Gee, if all these people are THAT riled up, those Republicans MUST be really awful people! They won’t bother looking up any other sources, or even bother to look around them at REALITY to see what is really going on. Just crawl up out of their ‘basements’ to vote on that one little bit of emotion they have been fed, and for THOSE cretins, it will be enough. And, especially based on how much of their public talking points are based on factless fantasies, that is precisely what these corruptocrats are counting on to keep them afloat.
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I really need to get off my duff and get acquainted with what’s going on in city council and school board meetings. Problem is, it’s somewhat time-consuming and effortful, dealing with people is stressful, and I am lazy.
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I have to deal at the county level. We are not buying “in-city” property to be allowed to go to city council meetings. Not financially suicidal. (Eventually the city will get us. But they’ve been after this area for 60+ years and continuously fail, lawsuit after **lawsuit. Last one was 30 (ish) years ago. There is a clear, very, very, *expensive, path forward.)
(*) City taxed properties must completely encircle the non-city properties, to force non-city properties into city officially.
(**) One that severely tarnished the city’s image, to this day.
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The EAA exists outside of Oshkosh? I suppose it must. I grew up there and was inundated by them every year.
Quote: “The City Council meets the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month – Starting at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers, City Hall, 300 6th Street.”
I should be able to handle that. It’s been on my todo list since I moved here. Time to do.
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The EAA has hundreds of local chapters.
And, as an elected official (member of my city council), let me say that you absolutely should bend your council member (or other representative)’s ear any time you feel the need. Getting elected doesn’t automagically turn someone into a mind reader.
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