“How can working class Americans vote against their own interests?!?”
Sound familiar? This was just one twist on the voting results from the 2016 Presidential election posited by Democrats whose candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost despite polls that gave the appearance of an impressive lead. The query was a vague attempt to rationalize the loss by suggesting a short-sighted view by those working-class/middle class voters who supported Donald T. Trump.
Given the Republican leadership’s inability to control their own herd of cats, it’s too early to determine whether that rationalization is an accurate reflection of the 2016 vote. Parsing all the Winners from the Losers, when it comes to the 45th President’s administration, may take years.
Separating Winners from Losers does not take nearly that long when one looks at most Local Elections. By now, some of the unabashed Moderate‘s regular readers may be tiring of my favorite political bumper sticker slogan, courtesy of long-time Democrat politician, Tip O’Neill …
“All politics is local!”
Now certainly, I cannot speak for the quality of all local political administrations; and for sure some of those that changed hands last week ago did so for legitimate cause. But I can state unequivocally that one local Pennsylvania upset was nothing more than the expression of Political Anger and Frustration on the part of Democrats. A state of fury clinging like a bad taste in the mouth for a Party misguided by their own leaders, who felt compelled to give Hillary Clinton just one more shot …
We can all understand their anger and frustration. We just wish they would come to terms with their anger in more productive ways than punishing local leaders doing good work and building strong, productive communities. In the case of township elections in Horsham, PA – my own little slice of suburbia – the ranting Group Think did nothing more than punish local officials for decades of efficiency, foresight, and quality governance!
Witness the facts as they relate to last week’s results in Horsham, PA:
- Local Democrats – a committee in varying forms of disarray largely due to past election failures – ran the exact same slate of candidates – save one – that figured prominently in their most recent unsuccessful election history.
- Said Democrats likely spent the same – if not less – than prior elections in money and political groundwork.
- Republican leadership has successfully piloted the Township through a daunting Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, fraught with implications for future Township growth and economic health, all the while …
- Maintaining a favorable property and municipal tax position, relative to surrounding townships, which – among other things – allowed the School Board to replace an aging elementary school without tax increases to cover the costs.
- School Board successfully replaced an outdated elementary school with a state-of-the-art facility without raising school-funding Property Taxes!
- All of this accomplished without controversy, scandal, or subterfuge.
Certainly Life in Horsham is not always a bed of roses. Opponents will point to an exasperatingly long BRAC process and the discovery of PFA pollution (perfluorinated compounds) in groundwater resulting from contaminants from the BRAC’ed military base. But none of those problems were caused or controlled by local Leadership.
Lastly, Horsham has been routinely listed in Money Magazine as a “Best Place to Live” community. And recently was cited by a local NBC affiliate for the dynamic business and employment opportunities and municipal-provided amenities that make the Township a quality environment in which to live and work!
Despite that very favorable reputation and their own personal choice to remain in a township that undoubtedly meets their own definitions for Quality-of-Life, last Tuesday many Democrats chose to bounce two-thirds of a candidate slate whose legacy made much of the above a budget-friendly reality!
We get it! Democrats are angry, depressed, disillusioned, and looking for Republicans to blame. And apparently that anger and desperate need to “send a message” was done at the expense of elected officials guilty of nothing more than doing a good job!
“How could you vote against your own interests?!?”
Indeed …
the unabashed Moderate 