Heated Debate vs. Fluffy Platitudes (Part 1)

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel

Some have expressed the sentiment that the debate in the 2014 Herndon Town Council election wasn’t in the spirit of friendly small town politics. In my opinion, this is disingenuous and devalues the intelligence of the Herndon electorate. I maintain that there is nothing wrong with people getting involved in local issues and openly criticizing Town politicians when they feel that their quality of life is potentially in jeopardy. I think this was clearly recognized by the Dulles Chamber, which hosted a very substantive debate on the key issues of concern to voters at the 2014 candidate forum.

The spirit of the remarks about “staying positive” reminds me of the meaningless campaign talk about being “FOR Metro coming to Herndon.” I guess this type of remark is intended to get people to think that some candidates are actually against Metro coming to Herndon but I haven’t met a single person, never mind a candidate, in Herndon that doesn’t support Metro’s arrival – and of course it’s coming no matter who sits on our Town Council.

Does “staying positive” mean that we shouldn’t say what we don’t like about a candidate’s policies and actions? The real issues that stir people up around Metro, for example, are traffic and extremely high density development and who pays for the cost of related infrastructure. And people aren’t necessarily against Metro or even high density development around Metro, they simply want a plan that won’t negatively impact our quality of life…and yes it’s worth getting worked up about it because if it’s done wrong there will be an urban disaster area in our back yards.

And I don’t think it’s out of bounds to say that I don’t like the idea of national political party PACs funding Town of Herndon’s political campaigns. What do roundabouts and downtown parking have to do with national politics? Nothing, which is why I sometimes find myself aligned with people on local issues that I probably disagree with on many national issues. But that’s because local politics is about local issues and if we can’t find common ground to discuss sidewalks and water tanks and goats then we are truly a nation divided.

By the same token I don’t like the idea of outside real estate developer money funding local town elections. It’s not illegal but it tells the average citizen that his ideas about what’s best for our town are competing with their ideas (and money) about what is best for our town. My ideas about campaign finance may be out of sync with the majority of this country, and certainly with the Supreme Court, but that doesn’t make me wrong.