Vote To Make It Better

The Citizens for Responsible Government are a kind of pioneering group, trendsetters, early adopters, groundbreakers. If you follow them back to their roots in 2004, they were really one of the first groups in the country to realize how much easier it is to oppose things than to propose something constructive.

We remember when we first learned about the group with the web site RecallMontgomerySchoolBoard.com. They were known around here as "The Recall Group," and their stated objective was to recall all the members of the Montgomery County Board of Education. Why? Because they had unanimously voted to accept a sex-ed curriculum that talked about sexual orientation.

Their target was not the curriculum, they didn't call themselves "ChangeTheCurriculum.com" of "FixSexEd.com," their target was the school board membership, the people who vote on policies that affect our county's public schools. I don't remember any other groups at that time that were just opposed to things, in general. Our county's Recall Group was ahead of its time.

Now of course conservatives across the country have discovered the Power of No. Now that there is a more or less liberal majority in Congress and in the White House, the other side has carved an identity out of complaining and disagreeing and blocking proposals and badmouthing leaders. No alternative solution is offered, I mean a rational alternative. "Let's take our country back" is, I suppose, an alternative, "Stop the socialist Nazi Kenyan anticolonialist," maybe, but these are not rational alternatives, they are slogans. The Republican Party, I'm sorry to say, has abandoned the philosophy of conservatism, and has devoted itself to undermining the majority in power, no matter what the outcome is. Their assumption is that the majority party will take the blame when things go to hell, which of course they will, because the conservatives are derailing the debate at every step. But you knew all this already.

The Recall Group morphed into Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which sued the school district repeatedly and failed to stop a comprehensive sex ed curriculum that talked about sexual orientation and gender identity, and that taught students about respect and tolerance.

Then the County Council passed a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum transformed themselves into Citizens for Responsible Government. They especially dislike Duchy Trachtenberg, who was chief sponsor of the legislation, but the fact is it passed with a unanimous vote, every County Council member voted in favor of the bill. The Citizens for Responsible Whatever tried to hold a referendum, and they failed at all of it, they spent a lot of time in court and lost lost lost.

Today's election creates an opportunity for the Citizens for Responsible Whatever to oppose -- wait for it -- the entire County Council! The gist of their newsletter this week:

Dump the Incumbents.

Down below they add a little red and blue text:

NO VOTE FOR INCUMBENTS**
Especially NO VOTE for Duchy Trachtenberg

There are a couple of footnotes at the bottom of the page:

*Although we didn't mention it in the last email, County Executive Ike Leggett has founded the Black Family Alliance to support same sex marriage and signed the Gender Identity bill. Although we don't know how conservative Doug Rosenfeld is, we are hoping for better. It is interesting that even the Gazette is supporting Rosenfeld over Leggett.

**All members of the County Council voted for the Gender Identity Bill despite wide spread public outcry. That is why we are recommending voting for alternative candidates.

***All Maryland legislature incumbents co-sponsored gender identity and same sex marriage legislation or have promised to do so. ie No VOTE for incumbents.

For these nuts it's all about the gender identity bill. They had predicted men dressed as women in the ladies restrooms and it never happened, and now they're mad about it. They just won't let it go.

BTW, follow that link to Ike Leggett's group. That looks like a pretty good deal, and an important step forward.

The CRW started out six years ago trying to get rid of the entire school board, now they want to get rid of all the current members of the County Council and the County Executive. Whatever it is that the rest of us want, they're against it.

I think our TTF readers are a little more sophisticated than that. Elected officials are forced to make impossible decisions every day, they have to provide more services with a smaller budget. You're not going to like everything your representative says and does, but that does not mean that any random different person is going to be better, which is the CRW's theory: "anything would be better than this." No, those are some pretty sharp people up there, doing a pretty good job. It's fine to replace them with somebody better if you think you can, but you should give that some thought, don't just vote against people because they're there already, and because you didn't like one decision they made two years ago.

Some of the challengers look good, though there are a couple of ringers. There is definitely room for improvement, in my opinion there are some people running for office who are better than the ones they are trying to beat. Look them over, read their statements, and decide who you'd like to keep in office and who you think might do a better job. Let's not tear our government down, let's make it better.

In Montgomery County, the primaries are pretty much it. I don't believe there is a single Republican in any elected position in the county, is there? So whoever wins the Democratic primary, in most cases, is going to win the general election. The primary in our county matters. You've been looking at the candidates, now go to your polling place and cast your vote. You determine how this county is going to be run, you pick the people who will make the decisions. Don't be dumb and vote against people, hoping that anybody off the street will do a better job, be positive and vote for the candidates who will do the best job.