Whitewater League of Women Voters’ Candidates Forum

Here’s a recording — still timely — of the Whitewater League of Women Voters’ Candidates Forum from March — originally posted here on March 19th at noon.

 

League of Women Voters: Candidates Debate 3/10/2012 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.

 

Embedded above is a recording of the March 10th candidate forum among candidates for Whitewater’s Common Council. Had there not been this forum, the city would not have had the chance to see these candidates, in person, on television, or from Vimeo.

A few published answers, often carefully edited, cannot describe as much as the candidates themselves, answering questions at a public forum.

Readers may decide what they think of this year’s candidates. This, however, is the risk (to my way of thinking) in any year: that incumbency becomes its own ideology, and that office bends men and women to a common approach that’s less than our city needs.

The progressive and conservative alike become, in local politics, similar-sounding moderates. Although some see this as beneficial, I think they’re wrong. There’s a place for ideology at the local level, and our lack of it has done us harm.

We would be a healthier city with direct, clear, principled, ideological declarations. I’m neither progressive nor conservative, but I very much believe that the city would be better off with ideological representatives, of either view, than with officeholders of situational convictions.