Apathy: A Campaign Story

‎"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?" Thomas Jefferson

“Remaining quiet leads to lethargy.” This could certainly be summed up in one word: apathy.

Apathy is defined by Webster’s as “lack of feeling or emotion; impassiveness, lack of interest or concern; indifference.” Jefferson is arguing that the apex of this apathy occurs at around twenty years. An interesting number. Why not five? Or ten? Or thirty? Something to be said here. A little over twenty years also happens to be the number of years that the Democrats have had virtually complete control over the City of Hornell.

This city made history merely in the fact that the position of Alderman was contested in nine of ten wards. Not one race or two, but nine. The “spirit of resistance” has indeed come to Hornell. But then again, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

In my own ward, for example, only 100 of 353 registered voters came out to make their voice heard. In spite of the words of support, the signs, the “I’m sick of this/that/the other, we need a change,” I had about a dozen of these voters just sit home. In spite of phone calls. In spite of reassurances. One lady said to me, “Oh, voting is today? I’m out of town.” Really? Just decided it was a nice day for a road trip? What happened to your interest? Your eagerness? Your passion for change? Now that’s apathy.

But what causes voter apathy?

I sincerely believe it’s caused by two things. One is that nasty, nagging sense that “no one will listen.” You vote your conscience; vote for the candidate you believe will represent you best. And they lose. Or they win and nothing changes. How often can this happen (say, twenty years or so?) when a voter just thinks “the hell with it. It makes no difference. Why bother?” A non-incumbent win requires something akin to what can only be called polite badgering. The Democrats did it very well.

One constituent of mine, an Independent voter, jokingly described our efforts to get her to vote as “Constituency Stalking.” Clever. And true.

Secondly, I think in our consumer driven society, Americans have become soft. As long as we have our television, our remote, our car (or 2 or 3 TV’s or cars), we’re happy. As long as I have money in my pocket, all is well in the world. We complain about the Mayor or the condition of the streets or imply corruption or talk about how there’s no dialogue. But the reality is these are just words. We are just venting and whining. We’re very good at it.

We’re not very good at getting off our recliner and spending ten minutes actually doing something about it.

It should be noted that in the wards where a Republican-backed candidate won or performed extremely well, the voter turn-out was very high. Now add to this the twenty years of experience the Democratic machine has had in politics. Sweet-sounding, grandmotherly callers, union backing…real foot soldiers to put the pressure on to “vote for Democrats” or else…well, bad things might happen (said with a whisper). City workers will be fired (how many of us know Republicans who switch to Democrat so they can get a government job?), the elderly will starve in their homes because the bus didn’t make it to their residence, house fires will not be put out because the evil G.O.P. cut Public Safety…on and on it goes. The usual mantra of complete untruths.

Or, as in my case, those who ask questions are called “troublemakers.”

Well, we can’t have any of those kinds of people in public office.

I give credit to my opponent, who, while not a single person I talked to early in the campaign even knew who he was, obviously pursued a more aggressive campaign than I did (with a little help from his friends) and handily won. As far as I can tell, he ran a clean campaign and from all accounts is a consummate gentleman.

My experience with apathy is not anecdotal. I think of another G.O.P.-backed candidate (this person actually won), who shared with me the “lethargy” in his ward. Neighbors, friends and people who have lived on his street for many, many years assured him of their support. “Put a sign in my yard…yeah, let’s do this!” He, too, after phone calls and follow-ups, found out that these “weak in the flesh” people just…you guessed it...sat home.

Yawn.

Still, the victories that occurred in Hornell on November 8th cannot be underestimated. In a heavily Democratic town, three Republicans worked so hard that they were able to break through the apathy, the lethargy, the indifference that leads to “death to the public liberty.” John Buckley, Randy Harkenrider, and Jim Bassage are outstanding individuals who will do great things. John Frungillo came so very close…talk about every vote counting!

The best thing that happened throughout the campaign was meeting these candidates and the Hornell G.O.P. Committee members. They are the finest group of people I’ve ever met. During a time when you realize your friends may be …well, not very friendly; during a time when I realized there were very few people I could trust, during the time that I was the brunt of jokes and hostility by basement bloggers and the recipient of an insulting, anonymous letter by an elitist coward, I also found a group of people that I could trust completely. A group of people who are loyal, honest, hard-working, talented, and intelligent.

And I consider each one of them a friend.

Thank you, John Frungillo, Brendan Smith, Randy Harkenrider, Linda McHale, Joe Flansburg, John Buckley, Joe Duffy, and Jim Bassage. I hope we can continue to work together to change this city for the better.

As the recently departed Father Kanka used to say, “Carry on bravely.”