Activists campaign for Question A, a 2022 ballot initiative in Howard County, Maryland, to uphold county legislation that “prevents County employees from asking about the immigration status of residents, discriminating based on immigration status, and requiring that certain information related to citizenship be kept confidential in Howard County.” Click for a higher-resolution version. Image from CASA.
Recently @shel promoted the idea of paying attention to your local library board. Her comments can be extended to cover all things local.
There are always exceptions, but to a first approximation every minute you spend reading or (especially) tweeting about national politics is probably a bad use of your time, and every dollar you spend contributing to national political campaigns (or to political campaigns in other states) is probably a bad use of your money. Even if you “live on the Internet,” what happens in your neighborhood, town, city, county, or state affects you, negatively or otherwise—and these days it’s more often negatively than otherwise for many people.
So, what should you do?
You have three alternatives, summed up in the classic Albert Hirschman formulation: exit, voice, and loyalty. If everything is fine and dandy in your neck of the woods then you can ignore local politics and related doings, and by your silence indicate your loyalty to the present dispensation.
At the other end of the spectrum, if you feel actively threatened in the place where you live then I for one won’t think less of you if you decide to get the hell out of Dodge and exit to somewhere else where you believe you can live a safer and more secure life.
My concern here is with people who have ties to the place where they live, don’t want (or need) to leave it, and are looking to voice their concerns in some way as to effect change. Again, you have multiple alternatives.
The first is protests. I haven’t participated in a protest in many many years (for many reasons), so I’ll leave any judgements on their usefulness, etc., to others.
The second is political and charitable donations, for those who have more money than time. Almost all of my political donations for many years now have been to local candidates: for county council, county executive, board of education, or for the state legislature. A donation of even $10 counts a lot more to a local candidate than it does to a candidate in a presidential or congressional race; if you can afford to give as much as $100 a local candidate may even thank you personally. And by donating early to someone you support who’s running their first local race, you may be helping someone who will go on to higher offices, county-wide, city-wide, or even state-wide.
If you have the money to do so and are OK with attending crowded events with lots of strangers present, I also recommending attending at least one of the local fundraising receptions that almost all politicians hold from time to time. It’s good to meet people in person and introduce yourself; you won’t have an opportunity for a deep discussion of the issues that concern you, but you’ll be better positioned to follow up later with an email or letter.
This same local orientation makes sense for contributions to charities and advocacy groups as well. Instead of giving to national organizations, consider giving to their local chapters or affiliates, or to local groups working in the same space: food banks, advocates for affordable housing, LGBTQ+ activists, whatever. They know the local landscape and are typically more able to make effective use of your donations.
If you have more time than money, a third alternative is following local affairs, attending local meetings and (for issues of special concern to you) giving testimony. As a result of the pandemic many jurisdictions (including mine) have Zoom or similar options for attending meetings and giving testimony, so it’s much easier to do so. And if you’re uncomfortable with testifying ”in person” (physically or virtually), you can submit written testimony.
Showing up (even if virtually) and testifying is really important at the local level, because elected officials typically hear from only a small and unrepresentative slice of the local population, basically people who are old, white, relatively affluent, and either retired or with flexible work schedules. Getting better representation is especially important with topics like planning and zoning where the conversation (at least in jurisdictions like mine) is dominated by that particular group, a group that traditionally has been hostile to affordable housing initiatives, measures to house the unhoused, etc.
(I’d add that some jurisdictions are almost literally begging for people to participate more. For example, my county offers free classes for people who want to know more about the planning and zoning process.)
A final option is to directly participate yourself in local affairs, whether it be as a person blogging or tweeting about local issues, researching and reporting news of interest to your community, serving as a volunteer for a local charity or advocacy group, or volunteering for local political campaigns, including (if you’re up for it) doing canvassing on behalf of your favorite candidates or causes. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in how effective canvassing and related activities can actually be, including with regard to anti-trans legislation and voter initiatives, David Broockman’s papers are a good place to start.)
A couple of final thoughts: First, national conservative groups have for many many years pursued a strategy of promoting local candidates and voter initiatives and stoking political controversies at the local level; the news stories about activist groups coordinating regarding anti-trans legislation are just the latest example of this.
While national advocacy groups can help combat this, ultimately these battles will be won or lost at the local level. As I wrote several years ago, ”it will all come down to winning elections,” especially elections for state legislatures, but also for such supposedly nonpartisan bodies like boards of education.
Second, if you want to make a difference in your local community, be prepared to be in it for the long haul. (This is why I recommend doing this only if you’re committed to staying where you are.) Again, this is something conservative groups know well—many of them have been working for generations now to elect local candidates, promote their proposed legislation, and get their voter initiatives on the ballot.
I can speak from personal experience here. For over ten years now I’ve been writing on my local blog promoting the idea of using ranked choice voting in county elections, and also testified to the county council about it. One of the local politicians reading my blog, originally a Board of Education member, wanted to know more, so in the last couple of years I’ve corresponded with him about the issue, talked to him via Zoom, and met him in person. He was recently elected to the state legislature, and with a colleague introduced a bill authorizing the county to use ranked choice voting in Board of Education elections. I gave testimony on the bill at a hearing conducted by our state legislative delegation.
I fully expect his bill to die in committee this session—the fate of most first bills by first-time legislators. But the issue has now been raised at the state level, has the support of at least two members of the local legislative delegation (out of eleven), and with further work and some luck may result in signed legislation sometime down the road. If it does succeed then it will only be after I’ve spent almost a generation talking about it—a good example of the kind of timeframe you should probably expect.
But when it comes to issues that are personally important to you—and certainly there are issues far more critical to the lives of those reading this than ranked choice voting is to mine—I don’t think there’s any alternative. If you’re committed to your local community and want to make a difference in it then you’ll need to put in some work on an ongoing basis. Otherwise you’ll be at the mercy of those who wish you ill and are working every day to make that wish a reality.