[Vision2020] The End of Democracy in Latah - or Not

Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
Sat Oct 30 07:40:27 PDT 2010


Courtesy of today's (October 30, 2010) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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OUR VIEW: The end of democracy in Latah - or not
By Lee Rozen, for the editorial board

Three right-of-center candidates scheduled to appear on left-of-center
radio station KRFP, known as Radio Free Moscow, cancelled at the last
minute this week or simply didn't show up.

How dare these candidates not show up as scheduled to be lectured to by
KRFP's listeners and asked loaded and pointed questions about their
religious as well as their political views!

The chattering class to the left of center sees this as the end of
democracy in Latah County.

It isn't.

It may speak to the candidates' courage or lack thereof in answering the
tough questions, as the progressives would have it. Or it may speak to
their good political sense, deciding to spend time campaigning where they
might have a chance to win some votes instead of being eviscerated by
those who will never vote for them.

All three candidates, Gresham Bouma, Isaac "Ike" Young and Bill Goesling,
had already shown up at every one of the candidate forums that had been
scheduled from Moscow to Deary and points between.

Let's face it, by this week many, if not most, of us have already voted
or, at least, pretty well made up our mind on who gets our black oval.
And, besides that, KRFP doesn't have the largest audience around.

We think that, if anything, these no-shows should get demerits for lack of
courtesy, both to KRFP and its listeners, who thought - until showtime -
that they would soon hear some fireworks.

Now, Young's opponent, Shirley Ringo, makes the point that she has gone to
every candidate forum, even those that weren't particularly sympathetic to
her as a Democrat. Well, so did these three Republicans.

Oddly enough, no one seems to be particularly upset that Goesling didn't
show up for his time on the radio. But then he is the only one of the
three not claiming to have nasty mailings sent out against him.

Some on the left seem to find insult in the very fact that ones as
conservative in all aspects of their lives as Bouma and Young are running
for office.

We don't.

They give us voters some very clear choices. It is quite obvious in
Bouma's race against Dan Schmidt and in Young's race against Ringo who is
the conservative and who is the liberal.

That should make it much easier for you to make up your mind for whom to
vote.

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Translation: Why is everybody always pickin' on me?

You see, Mr. Rozen. When you run for public office, you should realize
that, sometimes, you are going to meet people that simply do not agree
with you.

What separates the riff from the raff is how a candidate interacts with
those people that do not agree with him/her. Because, Mr. Rozen, like it
or not, those people are part of your constituency.

In interacting with that portion of the constituency that disagrees with
the candidate, the candidate can either step up to the plate and respond
to questions with honest heart-felt conviction or they can run and hide.

If you can't swim, stay out of the pool.

Seeya at the polls, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown




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