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BLAME GAME—Oops! LA threw another of those elections that no one knew about. Or, cared about. And, again, no one showed up to vote. Equally predictable: The usual crap about why: off year elections … too many elections … LA is the apathy capital of the world. The blame game is on.
And everyone gets blamed but the real culprits … the politicians themselves.
Former LA Councilman Joel Wachs … when he ran for mayor and introduced the idea of neighborhood councils … said, ‘the people have become apathetic and cynical, they don’t believe anyone here (City Hall) is listening.’ How about that as an answer for all the voter no-shows? No one at City Hall is listening.
Here are a couple more.
Just one election ago, voters agreed to pony up a gazillion dollars for transportation and streets and to help the homeless … only to learn a very short time later that they had been duped, millions of their dollars were being ‘redirected’ to causes and projects not clearly mentioned on the ballot measures they had voted to support. A possible reason for voters to stay home?
Then, there’s the now infamous Sea Breeze pay-for-play expose … the LA Times explaining that a number of our City fathers had taken … in one form or another … money from the very developers whose projects they were about to vote on. A possible reason voters stay home?
Out of town billionaires pump millions of green into an LA Westside school board election … jacking up the business of education … the Charter School Industry. A possible reason for voters to stay home?
You get the idea. So, when the experts get into analyzing LA’s humongous no-show election crisis I suggest they revisit Joel Wachs’ explanation … he offered it in 1992. I think you’ll find it still applies. “The people have become cynical, they don’t believe anyone here is listening.’ To our politicians looking for solutions to voter apathy I recommend a bit of self-reflection. I would recommend that, but as Joel reminded us, no one at City Hall is listening.
Ken Draper-Editor, CityWatch
