All politics is local.

[rivka]

I voted on my way to work this morning.

In Maryland, and especially in Baltimore, the Democratic primary election is usually more relevant than the general election. For example, the most serious Republican contender in my Congressional district has raised a total of $600 so far. (No, that figure is not missing a K at the end.)

Last week I was trapped on the light rail next to two agonizingly smug hipsters who had mistaken cynicism for maturity. They spent the entire trip from University Station to Centre Street sneering about how ridiculous it was to think that anyone cared about local politics. Who's ever heard of these guys? Why would anyone care who runs for state office? What do they even do - allocate money that Maryland doesn't even have? Didn't they know that no one cared? Like, they could get elected if their mom's bridge club voted for them. ...I swear it was all I could do to keep from beating them about the head and shoulders. Ignorance does not become any cooler if you give it a facade of world-weary cynicism, guys. If you're going to be that smug about being dumb, please keep it to yourselves and don't make me suffer through it.

They're missing out on some fun local races. For example: two of the people running for Orphans Court judge in Baltimore aren't even lawyers. They don't feel that this is any kind of a problem. The main reason one of them is running is that she's unhappy with how a judgment she was involved in was ruled on by the court. The other one is a mediator. She figures she's seen judges, and she can do what they can do. Why go to law school when you can watch Law and Order and go from there? There's going to be a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November to require that judges be lawyers, but the two candidates are unconcerned: if they've already been elected, they figure, they'll be in.

And they're missing out on some serious races. There's a serious challenger in the Baltimore City State's Attorney race: on the table is a massive shift away from prevention and early intervention efforts and towards actually putting criminals in jail.

I am not hugely educated about local politics. But I know the names of my state senator and two out of three of my representatives in the house of delegates. I've even met some of them. And I try to keep up with the races where things are actually happening. And I voted. And I didn't smack those annoying idiots on the light rail, even though I wanted to. Doing my part to make Baltimore a better place to live.

Comments

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

Go you! Our polling sites don't open until noon when I'm going to be up to my ears in errands, but getting the sticker is definitely going to be a part of my day. Mostly I'll be glad to be through with the robocalls.

Turns out you don't need a law degree to be a town court judge in New York State, and it seems to work out pretty fine in practice. You need to know what the statutes are and how to fairly apply them, but that's a weekend worth of training that I think the court system forces all judges to go through. If it were a choice between a mediator I respected and a lawyer I didn't, that's not really a hard choice. (Then again, I don't live in a town so it's not a choice that I actually face.)

Also, for people who aren't on the Jay Smooth bandwagon, here's his excellent rant on people who are proud to be politically ignorant:

http://nildoctrine.com/nil/t-pain-and-the-know-nothing-know-it-alls/

[rivka.livejournal.com]

If it were a choice between a mediator I respected and a lawyer I didn't, that's not really a hard choice.

I suppose so. That's not the choice we have here, though. (http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=12193)

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

The stupid, it burns!

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Grrr... kids to hip for their own good. I feel a little "get off my lawn!" lately, but still...

I get really annoyed at people who do not vote in Presidential elections because they do not like the candidates. I keep wanting to shout at them -- don't you realize that in many ways the lower races have as much or more of an impact on how you live your life?

In California, at least, the initiatives are a reason in and of themselves to vote. Serious things -- both bad and good -- come out of that process, with really long-lasting impacts: Prop 13 was passed in 1978, and has done significant harm to the state that we are still feeling the effects of.

As far as all politics being local -- when I grew up in Florida, the only races that mattered were Republican primaries. I registered Republican to try and vote out the entire county school board who were, as far as I was concerned, a bunch of clowns. I re-registered as Democratic in college.

[eeyorerin]

When I was in high school I had to do an internship as part of our "Participation in Government" requirement (yes, everyone called it "pig"). I wound up working with the county government, and when I and my fellow interns complained that this was boring, my teacher told us that local politics are often the ones with the greatest effects on our lives. Who picks up your trash? Who plows the snow? Who will hear your traffic tickets? Who makes decisions about rules and services that directly affect you or people you know?

He was right, even if I never want to sit through another two-hour discussion of landfill tipping fees ever again.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

We have a local election in about a month, and I know shamefully little about the whole thing. Well, I know the mayor is running again because he has big ads on bus shelters, and I know the name of someone running for school board who is endorsed by people I respect but I don't know if I'm in her area.

In our local elections, there aren't any party affiliations, so one has to either do homework, look for endorsements, or look for keywords like anti/pro-development, anti/pro expansion of transit, and "progressive".

[edschweppe.livejournal.com]

Good for you, and gaaah upon those nitwits.

(Will be voting today after work.)

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

"The law has been written. We only have to follow it."

That statement in and of itself should be enough to disqualify her from the position. Of course, idiocy has never been an impediment to holding public office....

[ailbhe]

I always want to ask those people to please give me their vote, if they don't want it.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

I am guessing that meaningful Government classes have fallen to "No Child Left Behind" just as art, music, home ec, shop, science, and everything else that isn't math and reading have done.

Of course in my high school, Government was one of the classes used to justify the salary for the football coach (Health was the other) so I have reason to doubt its quality and ideological slant. Personally I missed the whole affair by skipping my senior year, so my Government credit was taken by correspondence course from some state entity and was mostly about the three branches of the federal government from what I remember. Which still puts me way ahead of all those who scream about "activist judges overturning the will of the people," since "separation of powers/checks and balances" have actual meaning to me.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

In our local elections, there aren't any party affiliations, so one has to either do homework, look for endorsements, or look for keywords like anti/pro-development, anti/pro expansion of transit, and "progressive".

Are there local organizations who do endorsements?

Because the Democrats are the only thing going around here, you get quite a range of people running as registered Democrats. I've found the Equality Maryland (gay rights) endorsement slates helpful for things like House of Delegates races, where the candidates may not get much local press.

[eeyorerin]

In my high school, Economics was the high school football coach course. So I know next to nothing about that except for guns and butter.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Ha, I got out of Econ because it wasn't a state requirement. I revel in my ignorance of supply and demand!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I'm not registered for a party, which is okay in Virginia. My Congressman, Frank Wolf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Wolf), is a Republican, but I've voted for him many times. He's always been very good at getting Virginia, and the northern part of it particularly, transportation. The last few times he's been up for re-election, it was against a completely incompetent Democrat. The Democratic nominee this time is Jeff Barnett (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Barnett), who was a major peacekeeper in Croatia. I think I'll vote for him this year.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

"I get really annoyed at people who do not vote in Presidential elections because they do not like the candidates."

Aye: if you really can't stand either candidate, vote for a third-party candidate as a protest vote. If you do, they can see "this person cared enough to vote but didn't like either duopoly candidate"; if you don't vote at all, they interpret it as "this person doesn't give a damn and their opinion can be safely ignored." (I'd like to put off the whole "does voting third-party count as throwing your vote away" argument until later, but will point out that regardless of how one feels about that, it can't be any more "throwing it away" than neglecting to cast a ballot at all.)



I really don't want to register as a Democrat, because despite voting for a lot of Democratic candidates, I don't see the party as really being close enough to my views and priorities to count myself as one. (I think I'm a lot closer to Green, but I haven't registered as that either, yet.) OTOH, given the importance of Democratic primaries here, maybe I should follow your example and do so just to have a voice at the primary stage.

Great line...

[fawnapril.livejournal.com]

I try to be a generous person, but I just have to admit I LOVED this sentence, "Last week I was trapped on the light rail next to two agonizingly smug hipsters who had mistaken cynicism for maturity." It succinctly expresses one of my main frustrations with the overabundant hipster population here in Portland. Thanks for this public service! ;>

Re: Great line...

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Hee! I loved living in Portland, but yeah, I bet the hipster problem is much much worse than in Baltimore.

(Remember when they were called coolies?)

Re: Great line...

[fawnapril.livejournal.com]

Since I work at Reed now, I am constantly reminded of the "coolies", though I have to say there aren't as many hipsters at Reed as I would expect. Also, at SEEDS I probably just don't see them as much...:>

As for Portland, I like living here a lot right now, but it has it's struggles. I read about a new show called Portlandia starting on some cable channel next year. Ah--more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portlandia_(TV_series). They swear they won't be making fun of the Portland hipsters, but I think we, as a city, can take it. They had me at "Artisan Lightbulb Maker." We don't have cable, but must figure out a way to see this show.