The Cost of Apathy

We need not look long or hard to find myriad examples of failures in the political leadership these days. I often wondered how these things happen but the longer I’ve been around and witness what is actually taking place, that wonder is replaced with the realization that this is life in America as we know it.

Last spring we had a local election in Juneau County that demonstrated the apathy of the conservative voter base that encapsulates the essence of Plato’s quote “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”.

In this past spring election, there were eight conservative candidates running against liberal incumbents on the Juneau County board. Generally speaking, each candidate experienced similar results. The conservative candidates received approximately 42% of the vote with the liberal incumbents receiving 58% of the vote.

Let’s compare this to other relevant votes cast on the same ticket. The number of votes cast on the top of the ticket (presidential & school tax levy increase) was more than double the number of votes cast to the bottom of the ticket (county board supervisor). The margin of conservative victory to deny an increase to the tax levy to fund additional school spending was 55% to 45%. So, both conservative positions at the top of the ticket garnered a victory similar to the exact opposite results at the bottom of the ticket garnering conservative position losses. While more can be said about an elections result (candidates, awareness, recognition, etc.) than what can be extracted from these observances, this undoubtedly demonstrates that even though voters were made aware of their option to be represented by a conservative candidate they did not see the need to do their part by voting to the bottom of the ticket.

This is exactly how we end up with a political landscape littered with liberal & progressive leadership that continues to take us further away from the constitutional republic that made this country the greatest in the world.

Eric Ford