Politics and Public Policy

A lot of slander and misinformation floating through social media these days. Ideologies mostly are the motivator. Some are bald political party propaganda. Emotional appeals are the usual ploy; seeing through the scrim to bare facts normally tells you what you are reading or listening to.


There is a way to wade through the junk to get to the gold.


The way is a lot of work but worth the effort. Here are the primary means to getting the good information:

1.      Look for facts in the posts. If they are not clearly identified, then the piece is opinion

2.      Read backup material and source citations. These usually lead you to fact-based information

3.      Plan to vote in all elections. Study the candidates. If you don’t know much about them, research them. A vote for a bad candidate is easy to do but the responsibility is yours to know beforehand

4.      Study the issue papers to determine if their position is supportable to your thinking. If you disagree, know why this is so. Vote for the person who you think will protect, serve and make a difference once in elected office

5.      After an election, research the official’s record of achievement based on their campaign promises. If divergent, understand why that is so. Reality of office is often different than what was expected. It takes time to make a difference

6.      Study the down ballot candidates. This is a good indication of who and what is supported by that party in that location

7.      Local and national politics is vastly different. Local is more controllable by the electorate. The farther away the government entity involved in the election, the more difficult it is to control by the voters.

Democracy is not about party selection. It is about the candidates and what their skill sets and mindsets are about. Power and money are often in the kettle, but not always. Know the difference. Ideology tends to cloud presentation of facts.


Also, trust is an issue. If you don’t trust something, learn why. You may be onto something others have missed. But losing trust in our form of government means we the people have not done our duty. Elected officials get away with things because we let them. After all, we elected them.


No one promised democracy is easy. It isn’t. It takes commitment to do the work to make it function well for the common good. That means you and I need to do our homework. We can disagree all we want but knowing why and who will represent our point of view when elected is our choice.


Defunding police? I have no idea what that fully means. What will be proposed to protect public safety? How is this managed? What evidence supports this sort of change? Guess we all have some reading and study ahead. Please; no shortcuts. Duty is onerous but worth it in the end.


June 10, 2020