Hunter Bonner/MC Republican Assembly
This past week, news was abuzz about Senator Dianne Feinstein’s return to the US Senate. Senator Feinstein returned in a wheelchair, and when spoken to by members of the press, seemed incoherent. At one point, she even asked, “Where are we at?” Feinstein has been suffering from an illness, and her age is 89.
Even Democrats are starting to sound the call that she should resign. Most of this is due to the fact that she has missed nearly 60 Senate votes this year alone. She is, in effect, an absent Senator. How are the citizens of the state of California being represented? The fact is, they are not.
Of course, you cannot mention this situation without mentioning our current President, Joe Biden, and his lack of fitness for office. During his 2020 campaign, and countless times since, he has displayed a lack of coherence, even to the point of not being able to speak clearly. He is viewed by people from the left and right as a feeble man, which does not project a strong image for the United States. To date, he has refused to take a cognitive test.
It is not cruel to state that someone is medically unfit to remain in office, when that is an undeniable fact.
Biden has served in politics his entire life. Throughout his career, he has made materially false statements about his education, his life experience, and the like. Even the national press has caught him multiple times making racist statements, and yet, he was re-elected over and over again to office. If you dig into his political career, overall, he has not accomplished much.
In both situations, it is all about maintaining power and prestige with the same people being elected each election cycle. This comes at a cost to real progress such as economic prosperity, a healthy society, etc. It also causes people to disengage from the political process by not being involved with a political party, or bothering to vote.
Electing the same, ineffectual people to government office is not limited to national and state leaders. Local elections see this cycle all the time. The same “good ole boy” system that has been involved with local city councils, school boards, and other local government offices and boards, gets elected over and over again.
Just like their national and state counterparts, they accomplish very little, and in many cases obstruct progress for everyone. They usually do this by showing a complete lack of regard for rules, and in many cases, a lack of any sort of ethics.
Questions you may be asking yourself: “So how does one break the cycle?”, and, “Where do you even start to get involved in politics and to that end, what good will it do me?” I have some answers:
“How have things been going for you so far with the same people getting re-elected each time?”
“To the people that have not voted in years, how much of your sideline complaining has actually led to resolving local issues?”
In the Marion County Republican Assembly, we have a saying at each of our meetings:
“Empowerment Starts With Education”.
Consequently, in order to educate yourself on political matters, you must TAKE ACTION. This means you need to get involved. I’ve said this in the past, “you cannot rely on someone else to go to the polls for you.” Likewise, “change will not happen until you get a horse in the race.”
The Marion County Republican Assembly exists to “educate and empower” people with knowledge on how our political process works. We do this with monthly meetings, with invited guests who are experts and professionals in their respective fields.
If you are considering a journey of local government service, in order to break the cycle of ineffectual leadership, we would love to have you at our next monthly meeting.
Hunter Bonner is the President of the Marion County Republican Assembly and a grassroots activist. He can be reached at hunterbonner@outlook.com and on Twitter @HunterBonner. His views are his own.