Most people don’t think about a contest for a single council district when they’re thinking about ways to make Whitewater hip and prosperous. In fact, political races — and how we describe them — make a big difference.
Not just a race, but the way we describe it (or any other contest), matters.
It’s the difference between describing the city for several hundred (700 or so) and describing it for the many thousands (14,622) who actually live here.
Only by describing contests in universal and meaningful ways can we engage the full number of our fellow residents.
Whitewater’s Council District 4 is a good example. One can expect a recount between District 4 candidates Lynn Binnie and Cort Hartmann. The current count stands at 344 Binnie, 342 Hartmann. I have no idea how this will turn out, but one sees it’s a razor-thin margin.
Hundreds of people know these two gentlemen, and they’re both liked.
But describing them merely as Person X and Person Y, perhaps with an accompanying photo and reference to whether one is an incumbent, doesn’t mean much to the thousands of people in Whitewater who haven’t met either man personally. (Familiarity shouldn’t be sufficient even to those who do know one or the other personally.) A photo and a vote total are an insider’s view of Whitewater, fit for several hundred, but unimportant to many thousands more.
Each of these men stands for something, and we’d do better if we’d say as much. We’d do better by their candidacies, and we’d do more for the city.
It’s past time to stop selling the city in personal terms for several hundred, and start describing it in universal terms that all residents will understand. Whitewater is already a small town – making it smaller still holds us back. Placing a goldfish bowl in a shallow pool only futher constricts one’s movement and view.
A month ago, the League of Women Voters held a forum with several Whitewater candidates, including Binnie and Hartmann. I didn’t describe the views of these and other candidates as I should have — merely embedding the video was a tepid way to address this (or any other) contest.
They spoke, they had things to say. It was worth writing about and considering those things.
It’s what they believe – and how widespread knowledge of those beliefs is — that matters. Whitewater will do better as a more ideologically transparent city. I should have written about their candidacies in those terms. (Their election is over, however the count finally goes.) But there will be other contests, and I’ll not make that omission again.
Years ago, a smart person justified a possible candidacy for Common Council by telling me that a candidate’s goal was to be ‘an adult in the room.’ That’s not a goal; it’s a sad commentary on contemporary politics and a concession to more of the same. Everyone running, let alone winning, should be suitable as an adult in the room.
Making politics better requires making it clearer.
When it’s clearer – left or right – it will be better, for the accountability clarity will bring to the whole city.
