Fighting Local Government Corruption - Part 16 of ?
"A Republican can't win in Dalton Township." That's a statement that I've heard more than a few times recently. But, I'll show you why it isn't true.
The idea that a Republican can't win an election in Dalton Township has become so pervasive that it's literally turned into a local myth. I've heard the rumor that Dalton has a special law, a law that somehow makes it impossible for a Republican to win the election. I'm here to dispel that myth.
I could go through a lot of numbers, but I'm not going to do that. Just a few will illustrate my point. The last time a Republican ran for Supervisor in Dalton Township was in 2008. Things change over 12 years. And in Dalton, they have.
Look at the numbers from 2016. In Dalton more people voted for the straight-party Republican ticket than for the Democrats, 842 versus 826. In Dalton more people voted for the Republican Donald Trump than the Democrat Hillary Clinton, 2308 versus 1589. The people of Dalton Township also voted for a Republican as their representative in congress, for their representative in the state legislature, and for their county drain commissioner.
It's a little different when we look at the township level though. The Democrats won all 7 positions. It was a complete sweep. The number of Republicans that lost? Zero!
It seems to me that if a Republican would have run in 2016, they would have won!
This idea that Dalton Township is a single-party government abhors me. When the party is synonymous with the government, tyranny and totalitarianism reigns. From the National Socialist Party to the Communist Party the evidence has been made clear time and time again. It can never be allowed to happen, from the smallest government to the largest. Not in America. Not in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Freedom and a single-party state are not compatible. Individual rights can only be maintained through checks and balances on governmental authority, and the secret ballot is one of the most sacred of those checks upon unjust power.
That's why I'm running. It's a moral issue about the ideals that America stands for. And let me be clear. Even though I have now revealed the true numbers and dispelled the myth of Democratic dominance in Dalton Township, I would run even if the numbers were against me. There is a redemptive quality in doing the just thing no matter the likelihood of success. So if I stand alone, I will. Sometimes the most heartening thing we can do is to pick up our cross and bear it.
But I have seen the people of Dalton Township. When the government was bullying Hidden Creek Farm I saw them come together. They came together to stand with a young couple in need of support, and they came together to stand against a bully. That spirit of just defiance is within each of us, and it will show itself again.
Let me finish with a few important points from one of my favorite people in history, Frederick Douglass. If you aren't familiar with Douglass I highly recommend my article "The Opposite of Slavery": http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2020/01/the-opposite-of-slavery.html
I have been asked why I didn't run as an Independent. Douglass had to answer this same question. Here's a quote from a letter he wrote in 1883.
And I just as strongly support this statement that he made in a speech in 1870.
I am running as a Republican for Supervisor in Dalton Township. I have been warned of the tactics that will be used against me. That the opposition will probably run a stooge against me in the primary. That I will be sure to encounter resistance everywhere that they wield power. But I will not back down. I will not stop. And I certainly do not bow to bullies. Nor do the citizens of Dalton Township.
An election is the act of giving a choice. No matter what the choice is in the end, providing that choice is a sacred duty. And that, is why there is a Republican on the Dalton Township ballot this election.
The idea that a Republican can't win an election in Dalton Township has become so pervasive that it's literally turned into a local myth. I've heard the rumor that Dalton has a special law, a law that somehow makes it impossible for a Republican to win the election. I'm here to dispel that myth.
I could go through a lot of numbers, but I'm not going to do that. Just a few will illustrate my point. The last time a Republican ran for Supervisor in Dalton Township was in 2008. Things change over 12 years. And in Dalton, they have.
Look at the numbers from 2016. In Dalton more people voted for the straight-party Republican ticket than for the Democrats, 842 versus 826. In Dalton more people voted for the Republican Donald Trump than the Democrat Hillary Clinton, 2308 versus 1589. The people of Dalton Township also voted for a Republican as their representative in congress, for their representative in the state legislature, and for their county drain commissioner.
It's a little different when we look at the township level though. The Democrats won all 7 positions. It was a complete sweep. The number of Republicans that lost? Zero!
It seems to me that if a Republican would have run in 2016, they would have won!
This idea that Dalton Township is a single-party government abhors me. When the party is synonymous with the government, tyranny and totalitarianism reigns. From the National Socialist Party to the Communist Party the evidence has been made clear time and time again. It can never be allowed to happen, from the smallest government to the largest. Not in America. Not in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Freedom and a single-party state are not compatible. Individual rights can only be maintained through checks and balances on governmental authority, and the secret ballot is one of the most sacred of those checks upon unjust power.
That's why I'm running. It's a moral issue about the ideals that America stands for. And let me be clear. Even though I have now revealed the true numbers and dispelled the myth of Democratic dominance in Dalton Township, I would run even if the numbers were against me. There is a redemptive quality in doing the just thing no matter the likelihood of success. So if I stand alone, I will. Sometimes the most heartening thing we can do is to pick up our cross and bear it.
But I have seen the people of Dalton Township. When the government was bullying Hidden Creek Farm I saw them come together. They came together to stand with a young couple in need of support, and they came together to stand against a bully. That spirit of just defiance is within each of us, and it will show itself again.
Let me finish with a few important points from one of my favorite people in history, Frederick Douglass. If you aren't familiar with Douglass I highly recommend my article "The Opposite of Slavery": http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2020/01/the-opposite-of-slavery.html
I have been asked why I didn't run as an Independent. Douglass had to answer this same question. Here's a quote from a letter he wrote in 1883.
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I am thought to be an Independent, and so I am, but I am an Independent inside of the Republican party. I can have all the independence I want inside of the Republican party.
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I am thought to be an Independent, and so I am, but I am an Independent inside of the Republican party. I can have all the independence I want inside of the Republican party.
- - - - - - -
And I just as strongly support this statement that he made in a speech in 1870.
- - - - - - -
I am a Republican - a Black Republican dyed in the wool - and I never intend to belong to any other than the party of freedom and progress. But if one of my colored fellow-citizens chooses to think that his interests and rights and the interests of the country can be better subserved by giving his vote against the Republican party, I, as an American citizen, and as one desirous to learn the first principles of free government, affirm his right - his undoubted right - to vote as he chooses.
- - - - - - -
I am a Republican - a Black Republican dyed in the wool - and I never intend to belong to any other than the party of freedom and progress. But if one of my colored fellow-citizens chooses to think that his interests and rights and the interests of the country can be better subserved by giving his vote against the Republican party, I, as an American citizen, and as one desirous to learn the first principles of free government, affirm his right - his undoubted right - to vote as he chooses.
- - - - - - -
I am running as a Republican for Supervisor in Dalton Township. I have been warned of the tactics that will be used against me. That the opposition will probably run a stooge against me in the primary. That I will be sure to encounter resistance everywhere that they wield power. But I will not back down. I will not stop. And I certainly do not bow to bullies. Nor do the citizens of Dalton Township.
An election is the act of giving a choice. No matter what the choice is in the end, providing that choice is a sacred duty. And that, is why there is a Republican on the Dalton Township ballot this election.
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To read more from Jeff go to JeffThinks.com or JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com
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