Saturday is Election Day for many local governments in Texas and that means it is time to speak strongly and directly to some individual voters.
It is fine to have friends running for office to whom you give your money, time, energy, and support. However short of a specific candidate being an actual friend, you need to have the self-discipline to set aside the ephemeral of shallow feeling about whether you like a candidate’s personality, one you don’t actually well know, and focus on how that person will govern.
The decision is not about who you’d like to spend time with in a friendship. Instead the question is one of how that person will vote in office
I have made the point repeatedly that you are not electing someone to a city council, school board, or a legislature to be your preferred coffee or beer buddy. The decision is not about who you’d like to spend time with in a friendship. Instead the question is one of how that person will vote in office which is at the root of a republic.
Often the nice, enjoyable people to be around are that way because they change their behavior to please those around them. And just as often this is at the root of disastrous performance in government where they set aside what they promised you, the voter, in order to please their new peers who are fellow officeholders and government employees.
We are not voting for a buddy, but a representative and the way to do that is to pick the candidate who has the record or traits of someone who doesn’t cave simply to be liked.
Most often, in my substantial experience, it is candidate with strong and deep convictions and a bit of a prickly, almost domineering, personality who stays most true to what has been promised voters at election time.
When voting for a candidate, most of us are voting for someone to govern in the way promised us in philosophical terms. We are not voting for a buddy, but a representative and the way to do that is to pick the candidate who has the record or traits of someone who doesn’t cave simply to be liked.
Voting: You are not electing a buddy but a representative
It is fine to have friends running for office to whom you give your money, time, energy, and support. However short of a specific candidate being an actual friend, you need to have the self-discipline to set aside the ephemeral of shallow feeling about whether you like a candidate’s personality, one you don’t actually well know, and focus on how that person will govern.
The decision is not about who you’d like to spend time with in a friendship. Instead the question is one of how that person will vote in office
I have made the point repeatedly that you are not electing someone to a city council, school board, or a legislature to be your preferred coffee or beer buddy. The decision is not about who you’d like to spend time with in a friendship. Instead the question is one of how that person will vote in office which is at the root of a republic.
Often the nice, enjoyable people to be around are that way because they change their behavior to please those around them. And just as often this is at the root of disastrous performance in government where they set aside what they promised you, the voter, in order to please their new peers who are fellow officeholders and government employees.
We are not voting for a buddy, but a representative and the way to do that is to pick the candidate who has the record or traits of someone who doesn’t cave simply to be liked.
Most often, in my substantial experience, it is candidate with strong and deep convictions and a bit of a prickly, almost domineering, personality who stays most true to what has been promised voters at election time.
When voting for a candidate, most of us are voting for someone to govern in the way promised us in philosophical terms. We are not voting for a buddy, but a representative and the way to do that is to pick the candidate who has the record or traits of someone who doesn’t cave simply to be liked.