One sure sign of a great community is a full house at a candidate forum.
East Coast elites " you know, those who invariably mispronounce Nevada " might titter about Americana between witticisms about New Yorker covers. But their ignorance doesn't stop with exotic linguistics.
What the president or Congress do most often pales in comparison to how the county commissioners and other local politicians affect our daily lives in direct and sometimes profound ways.
Their decisions about roads, schools, taxes, development make all the difference for Carson Valley. And that's just the tip. Much of what we take for granted comes thanks to a lot of hard, largely selfless work that won't show up in "Face the Nation" or necessarily inspire mothers who scurry to have their children's pictures taken with an ex-president on the stump in the same vintage hall where last week's forum would take place.
Our neighbors who serve in local office are not perfect, certainly. But they do step up to serve, and on balance they make good decisions.
Yet many communities pretty much ignore their commissions and councils, their school boards and special districts. All to their peril. That sets up the all too common case of the gadfly complaining about lack of "transparency" when the only thing blocking the public view is the failure of the public to bother looking. Rumors thrive like cockroaches in those ripe conditions.
Yes, life is busy. We seldom add government meetings to our workday agenda. We stop watching the educational system once our own kids have run that gantlet. We might keep up through the paper or community channel. Or we might not.
So many channels, so much else to occupy us. If anything, this country suffers a crisis of civic irresponsibility.
So a packed CVIC Hall last week was great to see. I'm told it's this way far more often than not. This community takes its local politics seriously, and votes in higher numbers than most.
The county commission races might matter even a little more than usual this year, too. The perennial debate over the pace of growth competes now with worry about the economy and ebbing tax returns. There's also this undertow of concern about what kind of community this one will become if the "right" people don't win.
The bloom of growth groups and their candidates helps make the stakes clearer. The candidates might go on about public safety and senior centers, but they'll win or lose on their views of development, whether that's entirely fair or not.
Historically, this heavily Republican county (named after a famous Democrat) settles its partisan races in the primaries rather than in the general elections. But at this forum the Democrats sounded more like Republicans than most of the Republicans, and some of the Republicans sounded positively Democratic.
Oh, they all expressed their undying fealty to no new taxes. But that other hallmark GOP stance against "excessive" regulation wasn't much in evidence.
Imagine, Republicans arguing on behalf of an imposed growth cap while Democrats question whether such government interference is truly prudent.
For all that, the county's name-brand party domination is so strong that Aug. 12 means a lot more than Nov. 4, at least locally. Or maybe it's because of this quirk that candidates with Democratic instincts - pass a law! - and a yen to win sign up under the GOP banner. Sheep in wolves' clothing.
Party affiliation isn't really so informative in this county, then. Those telltale "D's" and "R's" on the ballot are unreliable as guides to the underlying principles governing the candidates. It's possible for a Democrat to have more conservative views than their Republican rival.
You just have to go to the forum to see.
n Don Rogers, publisher of The Record-Courier, can be reached at 782-5121, ext. 208, or drogers@recordcourier.com.
