VOTE!!!

The election today, here in my little city, isn’t national or international news. The race isn’t for high profile, sexy gigs like senator, house rep, governor or mayor of one of the biggest, bestest cities on the entire planet (YES, I’m talkin about New York. Go Mamdani!!!)

It's hilarious that Prez Pedo, by endorsing Cuomo, is working to elect Mamdani. The demented orange nimrod really doesn't get how toxic his imprimatur is. That dimbulbed, felonious, slime-bucket of a pedophile president isn’t getting involved in my town’s election for at-large city council seats, ward city council seats and school committee seats. This is a GOOD thing, though it'd be a real screamer if he was. 

I only mention it but these unsexy local elections shape everyday life. I want, I imagine we all want elected officials who represent our interests versus those of a bunch of wealthy, corporatist, religion-pushing, fascist freakazoids. 

Local government handles services and programs like schools (even though I don’t have kids, I don’t want a bunch of idiots roaming the streets or unable to make change at the coffee shop), parks (there are a ton of ‘em just in my neighborhood), transportation (bus lines, trolleys, senior services vans, etc.), road repair, emergency services (like when that house-to-city water pipe burst the other week and the repair folks came out right away) and on and on and on.

Big change starts on the local level. Bottom up. I have enormous respect for politicians who start at the gritty lower levels (or thereabouts) and work their way up. The folks I’m casting a vote for today have spoken out. 

• Does the mayor get a big, fat raise? (NO!)
• Do Catholic saint statues get put up on town property without the public’s AOK? (NO!)
• Should there be an 80-year lease extension for a large parcel of public open space to a private golf club (NO!).

I hope my candidates get in!

As much as I hate to give Jill Stein credit for any damn thing, at least she, the Punxsutawney Phil of US Presidential Elections, actually held an elected position in her home town, the wealthy Boston suburb of Lexington. Stein was a Town Meeting member for two whole three-year terms.

Town Meeting is the legislative branch of town government, used to enact local laws, pass budgets and authorize spending of town money. 
~~~
Lexington's Town Meeting is composed of no more than 203 members, including:
Elected members:

• 21 citizens elected from each of nine precincts for three-year staggered terms
• At-large members: the Select Board, Town Counsel, Town Clerk, the School Committee chairman, the Appropriation Committee chairman, and representatives to the General Court (state representatives and state senators)
• The Town Moderator, elected annually to facilitate all town meeting sessions and preserve order and decorum. (source) 

Unknown what job Jill did as a town member but apparently she felt it gave her enough experience to be president of the entire, much-more-diverse-than-Lexington, United States.

Lexington’s population of 34,221 is:
    56% White
    33% Asian
    3% Hispanic
    2% Black 

The median household income is $219,402 and the median property value $1.15 million.

Jill, who shows up every four years, to help throw our government to the fascists, must have a bottomless well of self-confidence and in-house professional ego fluffers on top of an alternate glowing universe that comes with being white and wealthy in America. I wonder what color the sky is in her world. Probably gold.

If there’s an election in your town today, GO VOTE!