“Going to a garden party”

For a change, let’s talk local.

Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House, Democrat stalwart, and friend of Ronald Reagan, is often quoted as having said, “All politics is local.” I don’t know about “all” politics, but I am convinced that the most important politics happens at the local level. You can talk mega-issues that dominate the discussion at the national level, but when you get right down to it, the politics that matter most to the quality of our everyday lives is whether or not the garbage gets picked up, the potholes get filled, the police can catch the bad guys, or the fire department can put out fires.

For years I have groused to my government students at Ivy Tech about the fact that the level of politics meaning the most to us on a daily basis is also the level that gets the least public participation. For example, a few weeks ago we had contested races for mayor and city council. By all accounts, it was hard fought. What was the turnout? About 25 percent of the registered voters in the city? Pathetic.

In the typical way of things, when local elections are over, local politics goes into hibernation until the next round of contests come around. The same familiar names appear on the ballot once again, and the proceedings, generally speaking, are as exciting as watching paint dry. Really pathetic.

This year I got an invitation to a holiday party sponsored by the local Democrat party. To be honest, I stopped going to these things a quarter century ago, but on a whim, I decided to come out of my academic shell and mix with the current crop of local activists on that side of the political fence.

Some things have changed. Democrats used to gather in local union halls, with the likes of John F. Kennedy and Walter Reuther (okay, time out, get out your Google machine, dial up “Walter Reuther”) smiling down from their pictures on the wall. There aren’t as many union halls as there were, so this soiree took place in an up-scale third floor condo in the near downtown—a space that a couple of years ago was derelict, and probably had been derelict since VJ Day (grab the Google machine again, dial up “VJ Day”).

Some things were pretty much the same. There were multiple petitions to sign to get state and national candidates on the ballot for next May’s primary. Since we’re talking about Democrats, the adult beverages were iced down in a tub just inside the front door. I got there about a half hour after the official start, so the buffet looked as though it had been attacked by a swarm of locusts. Democrats have healthy appetites, especially when the food is free.

Looking around, I saw several current city office holders, mayors and council members, all milling about, seeing and being seen. There was a guest who will be running for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Dan Coats. He did his basic five-minute “I am so glad to be in (fill in the blank)” stump speech, and then he continued circulating around the room.

I saw folks I worked with in a past life. No offense, but they were looking a little grayer around the edges, unlike myself, who hasn’t aged a day since William Jefferson Clinton was inaugurated. Too bad I can’t say the same for the portrait in the attic.

All in all, I was beginning to feel nostalgic, when I remembered a lyric from a Ricky Nelson song (Google machine alert, dial up “Ricky Nelson”): “But if memories were all I sang, I’d rather drive a truck.”

What was it that made this evening more than just a trip down memory lane?

There was new blood in the room!

There was a newly elected city councilman there. I was around for his baptism. There was a young woman who had put herself through undergrad, got her master’s, and will be announcing for county council in 2016, hoping to be the first female elected to that body. There were young adults with long hair, earrings, and pork pie hats. There were moms whose little kids were playing on the floor with their Star Wars figures.

There was life in that room. There was electricity.

Democrats, especially Howard County Democrats, are terminally optimistic. They have to be, because they regularly get spanked in county wide elections, particularly in presidential years when the county votes Republican up and down the ticket. I should know, I was among the spanked back in 1980. Ronald Reagan is not my friend.

But then I talked to one of the party officials, and he got to talking about what is already being put in place for 2016. I come from the “3X 5 index card in a steel file drawer” school of politics. This guy was talking about voter registration tactics, computers, tracking voters, social media, and tech-based strategies on the political cutting edge. Did I mention much of this technology is in place and being used locally today in preparation for 2016?

Don’t get me wrong, there was a recognition that winning county-wide races is an uphill climb in a Republican-dominated county, but there was a feeling in that room that it could be done.

I don’t know what my Republican friends are doing on their side of the local political divide, but be aware these aren’t your gran-pappies’ Democrats–and they intend to win.

Who knows how it will all turn out? One thing is certain, however. More competition in 2016 can only serve to benefit our community generally—and that is to the good.

As for myself, I went home humming a few bars of Ricky Nelson.