Dear Editor,
I was at the courthouse this week paying taxes, and I was reminded of the difference between national and local politics and the way we may choose to vote.
Issues like taxation, the war in Ukraine, women’s rights and immigration come to our hands when we vote for candidates who are identified as Democrat or Republican, as those parties largely control the outcome of those issues. The candidates on a national or state level are mostly unknown to us as individuals and we vote for them often by party affiliation alone.
We likely will never meet them or personally know or interact with them.
Voting for county candidates is entirely different to my thinking.
The political party affiliation of your sheriff, county clerk, circuit clerk, assessor and county commissioner has, to my mind, nothing to do with their ability and dedication to that county office. And, unlike almost every other vote you will cast, you can see and talk to these people any day of the week at the courthouse.
Compare that to the automatic machine written response or text you got, if any, from the last time you may have tried to contact someone in Washington or Charleston.
Here, we see directly how our votes matter and affect us.
Here, elected officials are on a first name basis and are our neighbors.
I’m so very glad to live far far away from Washington and Charleston.
Martin Saffer
Hillsboro
