I'm such a Hamiltonian

I have always had deep doubts about the democratic process, but those doubts took root this week. My dad has been a City Councilman for 12 years in my hometown. He is dependable and steady. He actually thinks through issues and debates reasonably and logically to reach mutually beneficial outcomes. He's not the fiery, fist-pounding bombastic who makes a scene and gets nothing accomplished. He's also not great at tooting his own horn when he gets something done. In a town where 80% of the population is Democratic and centered around every other district (not going into why--too political) he has managed to make sure the police are there patrolling, the roads are fixed, the drainage system works, and all those myriad aspects of civic life that when they're working, no one notices.

He is the only city councilman to never miss a single town meeting in 12 years. He is the only councilman to be 100% certified in every civic management course the state of Mississippi offers. He is a tireless advocate, and gives so much more to the city than that job ever contemplated.

He was told by the Republican machine this summer that they were tired of Daddy not making a public scene at council meeting to get their agenda through. They then explained that if Daddy wouldn't do what he was told, they'd simply put someone in office who would. Dad declined to act like a fool and scream his way through council meetings and opted to continue to work calmly and courteously with the other council members, knowing that alienating the other controlling majority councilmen with cheap theatrics would likely hurt the cause rather than help it. The Republican Machine found their puppet for the primary. She has lived in my hometown as a house wife for 37 years. She runs an illegal embroidery business in her spare time out of her living room. She has never served on a civic committee or organization. She has never owned/managed a business in town or been part of any commercial organization. Her platform was that she wanted to do more trash pick-up and have better shopping.

On Oct. 5th, this inexperienced, uninformed, uninvolved woman won the Republican primary 4 to 1. After 12 years of dedicated service in the face of rather staggering opposition, my father has been voted out.

I guess this shouldn't surprise me. 6 years ago, the citizenry of this same town voted out a successful mayor who had made marked improvement in the city in favor of a 25-year-old child with no civic experience of any kind because her father is a beloved lawyer in the majority demographic of the community. The town has just slowly collapsed under the weight of her childish whims, and the citizens reelected her.

I suppose the only comfort I can take is that when the Ward starts to slowly crumble under the weight of this woman's inexperience and complete inability to build bridges between parties, Greenville will have gotten precisely what it deserves--to rot.

I am really beginning to wonder if it's possible to get a good candidate into office there or anywhere these days. The country as a whole seems so excited to toss experience and proven track records to the wind in favor of some distant hope of something different--even if that something different is worse.

I guess I just ultimately don't believe in the current democratic process. I'm a must bigger proponent of Alexander Hamilton's view--that the average man has no business voting. I would like there to be some higher standard to which a voter must rise so that the informed majority, not just the numerical majority can control the direction of this country.

So disillusioned.