OUR VIEW - August 28, 2010

Santa Rosa County is a small microcosm of the country’s political arena.

Less than 23 percent actually voted Tuesday, but 100 percent want to complain, fuss, and grumble about what is going on today.

Six months ago, Santa Rosans were ready to barbeque School Board members. Remember the consent decree and the ACLU? It seemed to have everyone up in arms. Oddly enough, that ordeal is still dragging out in court today, but folks seem to have lost their ire.

Then there were the teachers who were upset about the step increases. That was the hot topic just a few months back. The issue is now quiet.

The state raised the millage rate.

Incumbent school board members received over 50 percent of the vote.

Diane Scott managed this feat while being in a three-candidate race. Amazing.

Two years ago, Don Salter won election in the county, but not his district. The magic played out again Tuesday.

Bob Cole won the county-wide race, but when the numbers are examined, he failed to carry his own voting district.

We have become a society of people who want to complain and fuss, but fail to take action.

Why?

Listening to Speak Out line callers, reading letters to the editor, and listening to talks over coffee at local shops, there should not have been a single incumbent returning to office.

In the business world, when a new employee is hired, that individual comes on board during a probationary period. If during that period, the new hire fails to properly do the job, they are released from further responsibility.

Politicians work for the public. It would seem a similar probationary period should apply.

But, in general, voters lack the intestinal fortitude to actually “fire” a politician. It happens on occasion, but it takes a very angry electorate.

Then again, that may not be what’s going on at all.

Voters may have reached such a level of total disgust that they no longer place any trust in the system. They may have reached the point where they feel it doesn’t matter who is in office, that things will always remain the same.

If that is what is at work behind these recent trends, politicians may truly need to be fearful. Such feelings often precede drastic public actions. Similar feelings existed prior to the French Revolution and the revolution that led to the formation of America itself.

Our lack of voting and holding our leaders to a much higher standard has created a form of monarchy that our relatives were willing to die to get away from.

These days, the public is basically giving politicians the same lip service and pack of lies they feed the public. Voters verbally warn politicians of the Judgment Day coming at election time. Then, when the day arrives, the voters do little.

We merely wonder what is truly at play here, and caution those in political office to pay particular attention to the underlying forces at work in America today. Failure to vote can be interpreted as consent. It could, in reality, be the calm before the coming storm.