deal or no big deal
tommyIn writing about Hillsborough County politics, Weekly Planet’s Wayne Garcia points out that many well meaning people want to change the system in order to change the makeup of your current elected officials. And he also points out that these things just don’t matter.
In another article, Garcia suggests that Tampa area politicians and leaders are simply happy with the status quo on issues that vex many folks around here - transportation, the economy, and the environment. He ends the piece with a complaint and an observation:
There’s a whole lot more wrong with Tampa Bay than just its transportation system. It’s up to us to change that.
Back to the first article: we should fire the existing Hillsborough County Commission. Some excerpts:
the company won’t ever run properly and achieve its financial goals until you fire the offending employee… Government is the same way. We are to blame for that.
If we’re not willing to step up and hand out some pink slips, we’re only rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
… we need to look in the mirror. We elected these politicians. We let them get away with murder…
If you are involved in trying to create change, then you have to work harder. If you’re not involved, you have to ask yourself why you are not. I don’t want to hear about being disillusioned, burned out, disconnected, unhappy with your electoral choices. We’re beyond all of those things.
There’s an election scheduled for 2008. What are you willing to do for the sake of change?
Sound familiar? Yes it does. SPTimes columnist Ernest Hooper said the same thing just last month, and we have been going on about over here in the sticks.
Now if only all this could get you off of your couch.
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November 20th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I think the county voters proved how much they like the status quo when they took Gwen Miller back onto the commission over Redner. The woman who fell asleep in commission meetings. And I had to laugh when one of the members of the city council we used to complain about got elected onto the commission without serious opposition–and the same happened with one of the county people. Thank you Linda Saul-Sena and Tom Scott. You might as well just keep “serving” for another few decades because you’ve done such a bang-up job so far.
Screw the deck chairs. This rat’s jumping ship.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Wasn’t Gwen Miller undergoing chemo while she served? Not that I’m a big fan of hers, but having gone through chemo and having dozed off at a city council meeting myself…yeah well anyway, my real point is this: Once we get everyone fired up and rallied, what do we do? How do we fight the money influence? Can Garcia point us to some working models for positive change? I ask in all sincerity. I don’t want to hand my power over to someone else (meet the new boss) but I don’t see a clear path to victory here. Suggestions?
November 20th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
In county races Dist 2 has several candidates running against the incumbent. Same in Dist.6. Not so in Dist 4; the incumbent is the only candidate. What does one do in that circumstance? I think folks vote on name recognition, not knowing the actions of the incumbents and their voting records. UCAN is planning a “report card” on the incumbents currently in office. This should be interesting to see. Stay informed and read about them here on SOF.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
That’s the absolute truth. That or party… Regardless of what one does in office, they vote because of what party the guy/gal is a member of. That hurts just as much on voting on name recognition. It goes beyond county politics of course… Maybe that’s why I am replying to what you said in the first place, Wendy. It’s not just the local area where people are too lethargic to find out about what a politician has or hasn’t done.
November 20th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
We can’t expect to just vote out the bad guys and vote in some good guys, and then let them drive the bus while we party in the back until the next election. Many of the good guys, as well as the bad guys, can be manipulated by money & power—to a greater or lesser degree—the instant we citizens abandon our duty as the supervisors of our government.
The primary goal of most politicians is simply to keep their jobs. When they sense that we voters are not paying attention, then they know that the only thing that’s going to get them re-elected is the big campaign contributions of special interests which can buy advertising to persuade uninformed voters.
If we convince our politicians that we are watching—that we care about the issues, we’re keeping track of their votes, and we’re informed enough to vote on the issues rather than the yard signs—then they will work to get & keep our votes.
Voting the bums out is the (relatively) easy part. If we care about our community, then we have to accept the responsibility of citizenship, and stay involved and informed between elections.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:04 am
Staying involved and informed is the answer, but, unfortunately, too many are involved with and informed about things having nothing to do with our local govenment. I call it the FTPA (Failure to Pay Attention) virus. Elected officials count on it. We get the finest govenment money can buy, and exactly what we deserve.