Voting on Local Level will Help Determine Outcome on National Level

By: Jerry Tuck

It’s easy to get caught up in the bon mots of the moment, those little media nuggets that jog our imagination so. One of my favorite bumper stickers is “Think globally but act locally.” I’ve written about this before but as a plea to shop at your local farmers market or the mom and pop stores in your neighborhood. Now I ask that readers and voters take a hard look at how we’re being represented in Congressional District 4.

To start off August this year, a reporter asked the president about Russian meddling in our elections. He answered a question with a question, “You don’t really believe this, do you?” After all this time and all those daily intelligence briefings, he still can’t admit this simple truth. Why? Because he would be admitting that he came by the presidency with less-than-honorable tactics. And that he had a tower he hungered to build in Moscow. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell also bridled over his new nickname, Moscow Mitch, which he earned because of his refusal to let the Senate move on election legislation. And for lobbying to let Russian oligarch Deripaska build a $200 million aluminum plant in, where else, his home state of Kentucky. Of course Moscow Mitch is up for re-election in 2020.

What I always try to do, admittedly not always successfully, is to find a thread dangling from the national political tapestry so I can pull it to review how it affects our district as well. Our longest string is Tom McClintock, who is complicit in the poor choices being made in Washington, D.C. In the face of overwhelming intelligence and a 400-plus page report, District 4 Representative Tom McClintock is still demanding to see Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “evidence” of Russian election meddling. I use the phrase “closer to home” loosely since Tom doesn’t even live in our district, the area he supposedly services.

The hypocrisy of these old white men saying they have the country’s best interests at heart would be humorous if it wasn’t so deadly serious. I use the “old white men” descriptive because the GOP just received the resignation of their lone black legislator and their baker’s dozen of white women representatives will be shrinking by three come next election-time. The GOP is incredibly white-male oriented. And, as a good “R” soldier, McClintock is very consistent. He fully supports Senate leader McConnell’s decisions regardless of the needs of his constituents.

J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy: A memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” gives a personal analysis of why voters consistently vote against their own self-interests. Set primarily in the Appalachian town of Jackson, Ky., it isn’t hard to see similarities in our district. Untouched epidemics like the scourge of opioids isn’t just about the West Virginia town of 4,000 which received over three million Oxycontin pills in one year. Investigative journalists uncovered email and text conservations between the drug salesmen, who in this context qualify for the “dope dealer” handle, and the local distributor who said “these things are flying off the shelves. It’s almost like they’re are addicted. Oh, wait, they are. Ha.”

We hear so much about immigrants being murderers and drug traffickers but, like domestic white terrorism, we hear utter silence when it comes to white collar and medical professions creating addicts as a Big Pharma sales program.

McClintock’s party plans to “ban violent video games because this is a mental health problem.” Ohio Republican Representative Candice Keller unabashedly blames the recent assassinations of innocents on a variety of homosexual concerns. Yes, Dorothy, this IS the same party who voted to make it easier for the mentally ill to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

McClintock’s party rammed through tax cuts for the uber rich with the rationale that it will all “trickle down.” Ronald Reagan is on record as saying the Trickle-Down Theory of economics only assures that money trickles into the pockets of the super wealthy. In a conversation with Nixon that was recently unearthed, the Great “R” Communicator, called black people “monkeys” who were “uncomfortable wearing shoes.”

The GOP has shown that they will do anything to maintain white control of this country. And, sure, who winds up hanging 10 on the national blue wave is important. Congress decides who sits on the highest courts in the land. Governors can allow redistricting and voter suppression. But locally we have a wonderful opportunity to change the debate. In 2018 Jessica Morse closed the gap on McClintock’s popularity. Brynne Kennedy and Sean Frame are now vying for the 2020 for Democrats. I plan to vote blue and will support whichever candidate makes the cut. After you vote for the eventual presidential candidate please vote for the Democrat running against McClintock. That is if your election station isn’t using Russian voting machines.

Jerry Tuck is a retired San Andreas resident and an indie author. Contact him at olwhofan@aol.com or at his website, tucknrole.com.

This was originally published as an Letter to the Editor in the Calaveras Enterprise.  Our thanks for giving permission to reprint it here.