SIX PEOPLE DETERMINE THE FATE OF OUR COUNTY
This editorial was also published May 15, 2018 in the Journal Press
So, a beaver walks into a local home improvement store and asks if they have an implement that might help him cut down trees for his dam. The clerk fixes him up with a chainsaw and the beaver happily scampers off.
A few days later the beaver returns with the chainsaw. “This hasn’t made my job easier at all.” The clerk says, “Let me check it out.” He takes the chainsaw, flips the switch, chokes it and gives the starter rope a pull. Vvrrooom, the chainsaw roars. The beaver panics and flees from the store screaming, “What’s that noise!”
One can only guess the pandemonium that broke out in the Dearborn County Board of Elections when they plugged the charged battery packs into what they apparently thought were very expensive ballot lock boxes.
Not that election integrity matters in Dearborn County where the mantra is “Democrats Need Not Apply.” Gerrymandered or misfortunate, Dearborn County is a knee jerk, one party county. For Dearborn County Republicans, the May primary for county office is just an inconvenience before the November coronations.
From what I read in The Register, the Republican Party apparently floated an ineligible candidate, which conveniently gives them a vacant position for any insider or failed primary candidate they can now unilaterally ordain by “caucus” as our inevitable third county commissioner.
Extremely few people determine the fate of our county. It requires only six people, two commissioners and four county council members, to bleed the treasury dry for pet projects we get no say in. Sound familiar? And, those six are decided by the Dearborn County Republican Party whose family tree has fewer branches than a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
Even with the best intentions, political incest is never a beneficial governing principle. It smothers fresh and diverse opinion and usually leads to arrogant overreach and incompetence. Worst case, lacking adequate checks and balances, it results in corruption. Competition is healthy, a few people running a single party dictatorship is not.
Disclaimer: Neither a card carrying “R” or “D”, I support conservative candidates with a heart, liberal candidates with a brain, common sense and compromise.
Chet Wolgamot
Manchester Twp.
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