Holding Politicians Feet to the Fire

The elections in 2024 didn’t go well for Democrats, not just in Jefferson County, but in the whole country. So who’s to blame for the flameout? There’s always a tendency to blame individual candidates, but the forces at play go way beyond critiquing the relative strength or weakness of any particular candidate. Here in Jefferson County, for instance, our Democratic candidates as a whole made up an excellent slate. You could see that in the way their Republican opponents readily adopted (appropriated is a better word) so many of their policy positions.

But, alas, the voters didn’t see the fundamental differences. They rejected the Democratic candidates and elected their Republican opponents. So why was that? Was it that policy didn’t matter or was it that the voters predicted the Republicans could get the job done and the Democrats couldn’t?

Notice that the Republican positions: closing the border, supporting home and private schooling, bringing in (light) industry, encouraging development, were not objectively better, in the sense that putting them into operation would create a better society. What “better” means to a straight-line voter is kind of beside the point. You do not weigh an individual candidate’s merits when you vote a straight ticket. And many of our Republican friends did just that.

Any politician, Democrat or Republican, is susceptible to the forces that push them to do or say something. In the best way of legislating, any individual politician would understand those forces, pro and con, and justify their own stance through a well reasoned understanding of its probable impacts, short-term and long-term. But they typically won’t take the time if their voters don’t give a hoot how they vote and will push them back in no matter what. It’s pretty clear, to me at least, that the orders for how to vote in the Republican camp come down from on high. It at least saves them the time to consider the pros and cons.

Just think of how all four of our Congressional Republican legislators voted in lock step to approve the nominations of so many unqualified cabinet appointments. No consideration given to the harm these people would do to West Virginians. And that harm is coming apparent more every day, including here in Jefferson County. (We’ll have an update in later posts on the particulars.)

Now that Democrats in 2025 are in the minority both at the national, state, and county levels, it’s even more important to be diligent. You shouldn’t go limp and silently endure the oncoming assaults on our rights. All candidates will claim they will work for your benefit, but look at those claims with a sceptical eye. If their talking points look precisely like what you’re hearing from their higher ups, that’s where they’re getting them. If they claim to have original ideas, quiz them on their understanding of cause and effect. And finally, If we elected them convinced that they were going to make wise decisions for our benefit, we should un-elect them when they don’t.

Jim Bauman