Leadership in Elections
by Dan Stacy June 7, 2010
As far back as I can remember, I’ve considered voting to be not only a privilege but my responsibility. I took pride in knowing that I’d done my part in getting out and exercising my vote whenever possible. Yet like many people, I always found a part of the ballot very confusing. You know that part of the ballot that lists those candidates who run for Judgeships and County Commissioner positions?
First off, those who are listed as running for Judge have no party affiliation. Now I know these folks are supposed to be non-partisan, and many of us like to think we are voting for candidates based on their positions and abilities, not party affiliation. Yet political parties do a great service to the voter in that if a candidate identifies with a party, he identifies with that party platform. It gives me a pretty good idea where that candidate stands on some pretty core issues, simply because political parties spend a great deal of time pointing out their position on core issues important to voters, and the candidate feels comfortable enough identifying with the party. That lets me know the candidate is pretty close to the party platform on those issues.
Now, there are some others that confuse me as well. I’m not referring to the state university board of regent contestants. I’m talking about State House of Representatives and State Senate candidates. You see, folks that run for these state offices are usually regular folks like you and me. They usually live and work among us. Yet our voter district is usually large enough that we don’t know these folks personal. Also, since they are running for local and state office, they haven’t had the opportunity to speak on national, big ticket issues that concern many Americans, nor are they given the amount of air time that their national counterparts are given. Sure, we know the folks running for the U.S. Senate and House races. They are on the news often. Yet we don’t know our local and state candidates.
And therein lies the true danger. Sure, those folks in national office can do more than enough damage to the nation; they can have more than a little negative impact on our way of life. Yet, these folks did not wake up one day when they turned thirty-five and decide to run for national office. A majority of the folks in national office have come up through local and state election processes.
We see a huge deficit in both character and leadership in today’s national office holders. Had we paid attention years ago, we’d have realized that these folks did not change and become corrupt, characterless political animals only upon reaching the national scene. Chances are good that these folks were corrupt a good long time before getting into national office. There is a long trail of devastation, fallout and corruption in the wake of many a national political career.
This year folks are more in tune than ever before in my lifetime. Due to the drastic changes to our society, countless changes have happened which threaten our very way of life. Our nation teeters on the brink of economic, political, moral and sociological failure due in large part to those who our society has voted up through the process, from local politicians to national figures. The results have been devastating. Our nation finds itself in moral peril, unable to realize even the basic tenets of our constitutional form of government. We seem perched upon the opportunity to nullify the very governing principles which protect us from tyranny. And our corrupt national…dare I say “leadership” has as its head the personification of the progressive movement which threatens to dismantle our system of government…Barack Obama.
So, this time around, folks are willing and able to be informed more than ever. They’ve experienced some awful leadership making awful decisions which fly in the face of “we the people.”
In the race in my local district, there are three good men running on the Republican ticket for the Michigan Senate seat soon to be vacated by Sen. Judd Gilbert (R) due to term limits. Now, I don’t know all three men, but I know one. I don’t know the character of all three men, nor do I know the family history of the three. But I know one of these men is a good, honest, conscientious Christian man who values family, faith, and freedom. I know his family and his extended family. I know his business reputation, I know of his childhood, how he was raised in the area, attended the local school system here, was raised in a good Christian home, valued family and hard work, went to school and worked hard to build a life and a living for himself and his family. I know he ran for election to the State House of Representatives because he felt called to do his part to ensure that we are free to life, work, and worship, or not worship as the constitution provides for us. After that election was over and he found he had not won, he didn’t miss a beat. When the opportunity arose for him to run for the senate seat, he didn’t even hesitate.
A core of principles continued to drive this man to run for a leadership position in the Senate. He does not view the job of Michigan senator as a position “over” people. No, he truly has the heart of a servant. He simply believes that the core conservatives principles of freedom and faith are important, even crucial now more than ever. As he’s said before, we may never be at a point in our life where the decisions made and results of this election are more important. Some changes may be irreversible.
About his opponents, I’m sure they are fine men. I’ve heard good things about them, but on core issues such as right to life and school choice, religious freedom, smaller government and a return of the school system to a state unshackled by the powerful Michigan Education Association, these men don’t measure up. On core conservative and constitutional values, there are some distinct conflicts of interest, in my opinion.
When things matter, they really do matter. And in the case of this year’s election, things couldn’t matter more. If we’ve any hope in reversing the horrible mess created by years of ceding all things political to our noisier, more insistent, more determined fellow citizens on the left, it has to start with the local and state elections, not just the national elections. We have to learn to change, from the bottom up. A national government without any support from an informed and activated state and local voting populace will find it so much harder to legislatively steal the rights of its citizens impose tyranny.
If you don’t know your candidates, I urge you to get to know them. They would all welcome your interest, your questions, and your support. It is important to ask the core questions: how do you feel about the constitutional protection of my rights? How will you advance the right to life, to protect the unborn? How will you shrink government? How will you bring spending in line with income, and how and when will you cut my taxes? How will you end subsidies and spending on programs not constitutionally mandated? How will you oppose non-constitutional efforts by our national government to take power away from local and state governments and give sovereignty away to global governance? If you cannot get answers you are comfortable with, you should not vote for those men. If you put them in office, it is so much easier for folks to continue to put them back in office, and continue their journey to the top of national leadership. Character will not ever appear magically where it never previously existed. Leadership must come from all levels of government, from township supervisor to city commissioner to state senator and yes, even President.
I don’t know everything about the others, but I know a lot about this man, Todd Courser. I know he’s working harder than ever before to win your trust and earn your vote. Will you talk to him today and ask the questions you need to ask, so that you can support the right man for office?
