The impact of voting and democracy’s elections

We’re well into the early voting period of the 2022 elections, and by now most people have already voted or made up their minds. Election Day — the last day to vote — is Tuesday, November 8.

As citizens of the United States, it is our duty to participate in these semi-annual workings out of our political ideals, ideas and differences of opinion. The beauty of our system since roughly the middle of the 20th century is that these battles between political parties have been largely clean and without violent incident. For generations, most Americans have trusted in our electoral system, administered through our counties, by people we elected and often know personally. In Texas, election officials are trained to rigorously conduct fair elections. And they do.

Yes, one can look back and find times when an election was stolen. Texas Congressman Lyndon Johnson famously won a U.S. Senate seat in 1948, when Wells County election officials manufactured votes for Johnson that didn’t exist, giving him the Senate seat that proved his mettle in politics and made him Senate majority leader, vice president, and president of the United States. Read Robert Caro’s Means of Ascent, the second of a superb four-volume biography of the former president if you want to get into the weeds of LBJ’s life. It’s a fascinating story.

I don’t know a great deal about Chicago or New York City, where political machines flourished during the early 20th century, but in Texas, “boss” politics preceded Johnson’s “victory” in Wells County by decades.

But then, election integrity improved. Some elections are still questioned, to the point of recounting the vote and dissection in court, but outright steals are rare.

It was rare in the 2020 election, when more than 60 judges in courts across the country upheld the results of elections questioned by loyalists to then President Trump. The facts showed there was no steal. President Biden won that election, fair and square.

When an election promises to be tight, as this one does, it is natural for us to start repeating to ourselves and our friends sensational headlines that uphold our vision of reality and worst-case scenarios about the horrible things that might happen if the other side wins.

I don’t think it’s a natural thing to do, but chanting that an election is going to be “rigged” and that you (if you’re the politician) will not accept the result of this “rigged” election if you lose (but not if you win) does nothing except raise expectations that maybe it will be rigged. Even when it won’t.

And that is where America falls into a very dark place.

If we stop trusting our better institutions, including our elections and courts systems, eventually we step off a cliff and become something familiar in Third World countries, where politics is a fairytale of propaganda and elections are truly rigged and are sometimes fatal.

So please, if you have concerns about the validity of our elections, become an election worker during the polling process. Take part. Observe. Help. Urge change if the facts warrant. But please, let’s not threaten election workers. Let’s not cherry-pick facts and toss out the ones we don’t like.

Let’s argue and persuade — or be persuaded — but let’s not shout and bludgeon one another. We’re better than that.

The truth of our situation, in America, Texas and here in Williamson County, is that much of it is beyond the control of one president, one party or even one country.

The situation at the border has waxed and waned along with the state of the economy and governments south of the Rio Grande since at least President George Bush’s first term — three presidents, two political parties and two generations ago.

Several of the things that trouble Americans aboutthelastsurgeof migrantsweare seeing today were first tried, as attempts to build a better immigration system, under Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden. It’s a mess, for sure, but if we could stop pointing fingers and find middle-ground policies on which most people could agree, we would be far better off.

We would be fools not to worry about inflation. It’s clear that part of our inflation problem stems from the Covid-19 pandemic and our government’s attempt to cushion the effects of the virus with costly programs. Maybe some day historians and economic wizards will be able to state for certain that our elected officials chose wisely or flubbed up. I think, for the most part, they acted in the best way they could with the limited and confusing information they had. I think the effort to stop Covid-19 was well intentioned but poorly coordinated and hampered by an underfunded, disrespected public health system, which hurt us badly. And I think that money received by many small and large businesses and workers in an effort to prevent a national economic collapse probably largely succeeded — though it couldn’t save everything and contributed to inflation.

The Russian war against Ukraine and its use of its oil and gas reserves to punish countries aiding Ukraine also has inflated prices around the world — and shows up with wincing pain at the gas pump. And threatens Europe as winter approaches.

America has two formidable opponents — China and Russia — and one small but dangerous one, North Korea. These nations have made major gains in power during the last several presidencies. Some would try to fix the blame on one president, or one party, but the truth is that the rise of Asia and Russia has been a long time coming — at least since the early 21st century.

When considering almost inexplicable things like big turns in the economy (depression, bubbles, inflation) or movements of migrants, or pandemics and their effects on Europe during the Middle Ages (Black Plague) or the Covid-19 pandemic on the world, to make sense of these epic events at all requires historic context and documented, well-analyzed facts.

These history-changers can take decades to develop into what we see on the world stage today. Then they play out for a long time.

So I am not terribly impressed when a politician blames inflation on one president or one party. It just ain’t possible. Or when a trend in migration stretching back more than a century, to the Mexican Revolution of 1910, gets blamed on one American president or another.

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A few words about Texas and Williamson County political contests.

I once thought Governor Greg Abbott, now running for his fourth term, was a smart man pressing for conservative solutions for Texas that were generally good for Texans. He has overseen a stupendous period of financial and population growth in Texas and that generally has been a good thing.

During his last term, I became disheartened. Even though the Texas electric grid escaped collapse during extreme hot weather after failing in February 2021, and may still scrape through other challenges, I thought the governor’s response was weak. He and the Legislature could have done more and better. After the massacre this spring of Uvalde schoolchildren and teachers — not the first horrific mass shooting on his watch — I could not fathom his response: common-sense steps could have been taken during the aftermath of the tragedy that would have made Texans safer. But the governor did not even try.

I will cast my vote for Beto O’Rourke. I don’t know whether he will be a good or strong governor: he ran a business with his wife and served several terms on the El Paso City Council before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He has become famous, in good and not so good ways. When I have heard him speak, I have heard what sounds like sincerity, a desire to hear his constituents and respond to their concerns, and a willingness to govern from the foundation of the possible. In other words, what I hear is a man who would attempt to govern more from the middle than from any extreme position. I think he could be a healing sort of leader, a welcome change. I may be wrong, but I would like to try him and see.

Willimson County’s incumbent Judge Bill Gravell, whose job is to steer and manage the commissioners court, misjudged several county events that surfaced early in his time as a county judge, mostly involving a former sheriff. Gravell has said he learned from those divisive, costly and sad events.

On balance, he served well during the Covid-19 pandemic, writing and recording heartfelt pleas to Wilco residents to get vaccinated and providing as strong leadership to county citizens as Governor Abbott’s orders would allow.

Likewise, during a mostly secret courtship of Samsung Electronics to make the largest foreign investment in Texas’s history in east Williamson County, Gravell’s judgment seemed on the money. As a result, a $17 billion plant producing advanced computer chips at the cutting edge of the industry will be built in Taylor. Taylor High School students will profit and Taylor will grow markedly for the first time in a century. The judge headed a team that included County Commissioner Russ Boles, Taylor ISD Superintendent Devin Padavil and Taylor Mayor Brandt Rydell, and outperformed the City of Austin and other competitive cities vying for the Samsung plum, which will bring with it an estimated 2,000 well-paid employees.

Mr. Gravell has grown during his nearly three years on the court. He can be funny, warm and very human (possibly a result of his years as a youth pastor) — but recently he publicly chastised a commissioner who questioned a spending item of another commissioner, creating an unnecessary political rift. During this campaign, Mr. Gravell has pivoted from focusing on local issues to launching salvos against President Biden’s southern border policies, which have not stopped large influxes of migrants from Venezuela from seeking citizenship in the U.S.; inflation and “radicals” who would “defund the police,” not a big threat in Williamson County. When Blane Conklin, a senior business adviser whose work involves health care, higher education and technology at UT System Administration, chatted with us at the Sun three years ago, I was impressed. He seemed like a strong candidate who would make a steady county judge. But he didn’t win, so there is no public record to examine.

His large goals, he says, are to improve public safety by raising salaries of law enforcement professionals, expand the county’s mental health resources, expand our broadband penetration and explore the possibility of creating a unified regional water authority.

“I am not a professional politician,” he says. “I will bring competent, ethical and mainstream leadership to the position. We need less drama and more servant leadership from the county judge’s office.”

How to vote? Two good men, I think, and two different visions of progress for the county. They each bring strengths and useful experience. It’s your choice — and how lucky we are to have two strong candidates.