Local Politics - What I've Learned So Far

The below was originally published in April 2014. It's still as relevant today as then.

I grew up in the liberal northeast, cocooned by a conservative, bedroom community of 20,000+. Despite my mother’s engagement with organizations like the League of Women Voters and the Democratic Town Committee I couldn't really say that I understood the complexities of town politics. 

What I did think back then was that Democrats wanted to fund teachers and Republicans wanted to fund armies. But as I prepare for my first-ever engagement as a member of an elected body I can really only claim to know myself and not anyone else. I don’t know the personal stories of the representatives that I'll sit, debate and vote beside and I don’t know their motivation for feeling or voting a particular way. But beginning tonight I aim to.

The community that I chose to live in is eerily similar to the one I was raised in. Each is filled with good people who care about their families, neighbors and community. They want improving schools, reduced crime and inflated housing values…but it also seems that none are terribly keen to pay for these outcomes. That’s understandable, especially during a stubborn - albeit sluggishly improving - economy.

My personal involvement in politics at any level feels long overdue. As a renter for the first 20+ years of my adult life I was never in one place long enough to justify the time it takes to get involved in the process. But over the years I've watched enough Hardball, McLaughlin Group and Meet the Press to make me feel as though I could and should contribute. Little did I know how right I was about the commitment in time that it takes. If my experience is anything to go by the effort it takes to manage small town politics is an unknown and therefore unappreciated commitment. A commitment by faceless individuals who donate countless hours to the process of civic management. I can only imagine they do so for the sheer love and/or interest of it because there’s any other compensation.

Case in point is the humbling, two-inch thick tome that I've been pouring over in preparation for tonight’s ‘Town Meeting’ assembly. The report, which is chock full of procedures, carefully crafted language and detailed maps would make any British Parliamentarian, lawyer or land surveyor proud. And get this – its 444 pages (not including index) is the product of a Finance Committee of volunteers. 

The effort it took to put this together must have been arduous but I can say with absolute certainty it's more powerful than any 1,200 word column or blog I've ever read or written. And as someone whose career is based upon the use of social media I can say it's also more important than all that too - not as far reaching but something that more acutely effects people's everyday lives. 

As a beneficiary of the real-time, social age I do understand the quick win feeling of engaging a right fighter on a reader forum or beneath a salacious posting  but what I did not understand - until very recently - is how one sided a political life spent strictly (or mainly) online can be.

Although I guess it's better to be engaged in any way than in no way, from tonight, this voter will be trying things the old fashioned way - by spending hours sitting beside his neighbors trying to make our community a better place to be.