It’s right for government to reach – informatively, accurately – as many residents as possible. Efforts in that direction are to the good.
Three conditions have to be fulfilled to achieve a majority opinion on an issue: one needs the means to reach many, one needs to see those many as they actually are, and one needs an issue around which a majority from among the city will form.
This must seem obvious, but it’s only clear to some of the city’s policymakers. Although the technical means of reaching many are easily understood, seeing the community as it actually is, and crafting a message to that actual community, still confounds a few (including some who don’t see that they are, truly, confounded).
Where to begin? One might start with a reliable survey of the community’s demographics.
One can craft a majority in this city, but it’s an understatement to say thay it won’t look demographically like most officeholders, committee members, commentators, etc.
That shouldn’t matter if one cares most about issues as issues, case by case, but if one’s hoping for a demographically-similar, stable majority in Whitewater, one’s sure to be disappointed.
Whitewater isn’t like that, any more than Pleasantville was a real town.