Lucia

de Vernai

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October 13, 2008

Why Focus on Local Issues? Because (Surprise!) the President Doesn’t Run Everything

Sentiment over logic is a proven political tactic, and kissing babies and milking war-time stories for whatever they are worth is standard practice. Just when I thought nothing could surprise me, I heard a bad mix of an eHarmony commercial and the sentimental fluff used by jewelry stores at Christmas fronting as a public service announcement in support of Proposition 102, an amendment to Arizona’s Constitution to confine marriage to one man and one woman.

Presidential elections are the ideal time to have voters make decisions about state issues, especially since they are paying attention to anything but their local surroundings. If it were really important, it would have received more attention, we figure. For this reason, weepy commercials are all it takes to make the general electorate ignore state representatives, judgeships and propositions on the November ballot across the country.

The popular thought is that if we choose the right guys for the top office, everything will trickle down (and doesn’t it always?) to the state and local level and we’ll have nothing to worry about. It’s usually too late to shift gears when it becomes clear that what Joe Biden or Sarah Palin think the definition of marriage should be is irrelevant because defining marriage is a right reserved for the states, and the executive branch has no power over the matter. States legalized gay marriage while God-fearing President Bush was in office.

Election time has a sneaky way of convincing us that everything hinges on our choice of president. The ads running on TV and radio in your state are probably either as cheesy or confusing as the ones in mine – payday loans, termination of a minor’s pregnancy, maximum limit loss for gambling and sensible possession of marijuana (whatever that means) will appear on ballots in 16 states this November. As exciting as presidential elections are, paying attention to the rest of the ballot is equally important.

The efforts of uniting voters across the country seems successful – the jet-setter candidates are shaking hands and mesmerizing another wide-eyed crowd every other day. But the feeling of unity that the presidential race brings doesn’t last far beyond the president’s honeymoon period. The legislature gets back in session, economic pressures fuel the every-state-for-itself approach and soon enough we are left wondering if we have more in common with our fellow Americans than currency.

Fed up with the pressures of high property taxes and irresponsible school boards, we look to the federal government to bring some kind of sanity to local existence. What we get is $700 billion in “Surprise!” bailouts, but hearing about “Change” or “Country First” is somehow more heartening than “the homeless were paid for their signatures for the payday loan petition,” as was allegedly the case in Ohio.

Broad issues, the possibility of international impact and overhauling change promised by presidential candidates are more enticing, and easier to gather information about, than state-specific issues. (Seriously, what’s sensible marijuana possession?).

But paying closer attention to what’s behind the Lifetime-inspired ads for state initiatives this election may prove to have a greater impact on our lives than who is president.

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