Editorial
With early voting for the March Primary just around the corner — an election that will decide the outcome of all county races in Fisher and Stonewall counties — I wanted to review some propositions on this year’s ballot and share how my concerns have less to do with the local courthouses or even the nation’s capital and more so with the politicians occupying that big pink building in Austin.
Despite the flaws inherent in the two-party system, I see the value of each parties' various perspectives. In my observations, Democrats tend to favor a larger central government with more involvement in its citizens’ lives, whereas Republicans argue for more state and local control with less government involvement. Additionally, Democrats love to spend revenue without having much of an idea of how to generate it, a lot like teenagers, while Republicans are good at making money but struggle with sharing it like dragons and leprechauns.
As a person who works to cut as deeply into the heart of an issue to help uncover the facts necessary to make often difficult and challenging decisions, I question the fortitude of the Democratic Party lately and am beginning to think the Texas GOP may have lost its dadgum mind.
The results from municipal and general election propositions can be used for passing local bonds and for determining state constitutional amendments, the primaries have different goals. Propositions on primary ballots are essentially nothing more than voter surveys, propositions that aid parties decide on priorities moving forward.
Although Democrats voted on several propositions during the 2020 primaries, the party stayed silent this year with not a single one appearing on the upcoming March ballot. Meanwhile, the GOP is proposing, “The Republican-controlled Texas legislature should end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats.”
While I can understand the goal of either party wanting to maintain a political majority, the openness in which the Republicans are asking for voter permission to stifle the voice of any opposition is alarming. Through open discussion and compromise do we often find the best solution for all Texas, but Republicans seem to prefer to limit deviating perspectives and thus reaping the council of mediocrity.
Another ridiculously stupid idea is Proposition 2, asking for a favorable vote that, “Texas should eliminate all property taxes with ten (10) years without implementing a state income tax.”
And fund state operations how exactly?
While I don’t want my local government to function like IBM, Amazon, or Google, continuing to expend dollars with no tangible way of generating revenue is pretty much a first-class blueprint of stupid ideas. I’m pretty sure there is a word for that business model: Un-flipping-sustainable.
So please dear readers, regardless of which side of the aisle you tend to lean toward, we can’t allow those we elect to fall victim to petty political practices or promoting decisions that make excellent sounding social media posts but lack real-world applications. Otherwise, I fear as voters we will only further gum up the works of an already slow-moving governmental machine, widening ideological divides in both Democrat and Republican parties, probably at the expense of common-sense moderates