A recent editorial in this newspaper suggests that the reason for the large movement from Republicans to Democrats in the last election was a failure of Republicans to vote. Perhaps that is because their leaders did not support what their own constituencies want? What do you do if you are unhappy with your political party, but are not yet ready to vote for the other party?
Some of the more obvious examples of current government failures are the shutdown of the national government, the cancellation of SNAP (food stamps) support, the enormous increase in the cost of health insurance, and increasing inflation and cost of living. I don’t know anyone who supports any of these things (I don’t know any billionaires so perhaps my sample is skewed.)
It’s interesting that politicians from both parties say that they support many of the same things, including good schools and decreased energy costs. Both parties want to run government efficiently. Historically, the Republican Party has been interested in decreasing the role of government and lowering taxes, which would also mean that services would need to be decreased. The Democratic Party supported government playing a more active role in building the community by providing things such as health care to the poor and good salaries for teachers, which of course require tax dollars. Now I wonder if this distinction is still true.
For example, both parties say rising energy costs are a problem. Yet, many conservative communities want to limit the ability of people to use their own property for solar farms. Should government be telling farmers what to do with their land? Should it order that they grow corn rather than soybeans next – where does it stop? Should the free market – capitalism – drive this decision rather than government? Yet even though more solar would help with the future price of energy (globally, solar is the largest source of new electricity generation because people everywhere want to save money!), there is a Republican call for government to prevent new installations. I just can’t find any logic in this, and it’s very surprising that this demand for more government control over individual land use should come from the anti-big government party.
Perhaps some local representatives prefer follow directions from Washington rather than their community. Clearly, they haven’t reflected local values lately, as shown by the shutdown, increase in insurance costs, and loss of SNAP. Let’s hope that with the new legislature in Richmond starting in January our legislators will be more responsive to their voters, rather than pressure from Washington. Let’s hope too that our representatives base their vote on the views of their entire district, rather than following direction from their national political party.
