The abrogation of moral authority and responsibility in the national political party system has permeated American political echelons, and, therefore, influenced political leadership, down to the most local of levels, even school boards. Everybody in the political system has to declare to be a Democrat or a Republican, especially, and adhere to their party’s dictates or suffer election consequences.
When national politics intrudes into municipal government, nothing resulting thereafter in the way of political wickedness is then implausible. National political intrusion, if unchecked, will induce citizens to accept what theretofore would have been considered to be morally and ethically reprehensible. (Inspired by Twain, Socrates, Plato, and Jefferson)
“There is nothing I dread so much as the division of America into two great parties, each arranged under its Leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.” – Thomas Jefferson
The major parties will continue to fight one another, fostering intractable divisions among the various local population groupings. As never before, local people need stalwart public servant leaders — not traditional politicians — to advance the historic Democratic Principles. The people and the nation can only be saved from the local level upward.
A poll commissioned by the Local Solutions Support Center shows that the majority of voters disapprove of external intrusion into local communities; think that external intrusion and preemption happen frequently; and believe that local leaders are more knowledgeable of community needs.
There is a major disconnect between national leaders’ socio-economic status, which drives implicit cultural biases, and average Americans. Over half of the members of Congress are millionaires and the median net worth of congress is approximately $1 million. America’s current median net worth is $193,000, and nearly 50% of Americans are one pay check from poverty.
However, the farther away a governmental power center is from the citizens it purportedly “serves,” the less direct impact it has on citizens’ daily lives, e.g., the US Secretary of Education vis-à-vis District Superintendents, or, even more important, school principals; and the US president vis-à-vis mayors.
Given the tight voting margins, it is encouraging to note how small a body of people it would take — even with the present high level of national decadence — to upset the plans of our ruling plutocrats and politicians – as opposed to Public Servants, if we focus our attention on the Fundamental Building Blocks of a nation at their source – individual human beings in local communities.
All of us – leaders and led — must find our work and do it. To refuse to participate in the shaping of OUR future is to give it up. Do not be misled into passivity either by false security (they — the fascists — don’t mean YOU) or by despair (there is nothing WE THE PEOPLE can do). – From Audre Lorde
People in small groups are more likely to make and keep promises. But a community whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, and refuse to believe that their external governments and the media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a community that chooses and deserves the Dictatorship it will get from on high. – From Ian Williams Goddard
A municipal charter is the legal document that defines the organization, powers, functions, and essential procedures of municipal government. But, even under schemas that give legal decision-making power to mayors, most people think the mayors’ role is mostly ceremonial – a debilitating antiquity.
In today’s America, the mayor is the most important person in the political, social and spiritual domain. The mayor speaks to lawmakers on behalf of the people’s needs, and speaks to the people with respect to decision-makers’ actions. No entity, especially the three branches of state and national governments, is as important as the mayor. The mayor is in the ideal position to be the people’s greater voice, MLK’s Drum Major.
Even among the many who may be wise enough to discover truth, it is rare to find those intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.
– From Archibald Hodge
Nevertheless, valiant, definitive, purposeful mayors – Real Leaders — can inspire the people who need their example. Nobody follows an uncertain, timid drummer.
Irrespective of legal authority provided by the charters, all mayors could be as effective as Denver’s Mike Johnson. THE CRUCIAL QUESTION is if a mayor were “audacious” enough to become that decisive, certain drummer, a real leader, would there be enough fellow citizens sufficiently courageous, enlightened and perseverant to stand with him or her to protect the people from national political party abuses, and advance the primary purposes of the Constitution – for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people?
