You are a Republican, you have lived in your Indiana town for six years, and no Republicans were running at all.
What kept you from running? Is it job or family responsibilities, or a lack of support from the Republican organization, or do you live in a liberal bastion and feel a sense of futility?
I don’t mean this as a criticism. I have no idea about your personal circumstances, and I never ran for office myself either. I guess this is more of a global comment.
The Trump administration has the potential to either impact America for the long term or be a flash in the pan. If government offices at all levels — federal (including administrative offices), state, and local — continue to be filled by leftists, then as soon as President Trump is out of office, whether in 2020 or 2024, the left will close ranks and it will be as though he never was here.
What kept you from running?
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Not Indiana, but in my rural WI area, while Rs can and do win, especially small county seat/county positions, the answer most people will give is ‘No one would vote for me.’
It takes extroverts with money/monetary support who don’t own a business. You need to have no personal skeletons, including no black sheep family members. You need a large social network, including extended family. There are no independent papers any longer. All small weeklies are owned by conglomerates from the nearest small city (50k+)and those are all prog-owned.
Decades ago, conservative professionals who ran for school board saw their practice hit hard. The entire family took that to heart and the current generation is election-shy.
In the same time period, we had 2 newspapers. The D paper lied and was full of ads. The conservative paper told the real truth and had no support, so went belly up.
It’s not just transplants. We’re transplants of 45-years standing. The sad truth in many places is the children of local traditionalists are thrilled with the new *hip* folks moving in and they end up changing their values.
With the help of soros and his well funded organizations, the kaos in our communities will reach a fever pitch
Point well taken. I have always lived in areas dominated by Democrats, but what bothers me more than that is having elected officials whom no one voted for, who got their offices by default.
I live in the old industrial, blue-collar, rust-belt, northwest corner of the Indiana, which is solidly blue. You go to the south part of the county, though, and you start getting into red Indiana. The only Republicans I get to vote for regularly are those running statewide. Nobody running for state senate or rep. We have had a Republican running for Congress the last two times (the same person, who is becoming a perennial sacrificial lamb) but before that a Libertarian was the only option.
The power structure in my town is kind of insular and consists of people were born here and who have known each other their entire lives. One good thing about the Dems here (and I found this also when I lived on Chicago’s far south side) is that they are mostly socially-moderate, some even socially-conservative, so the kooky stuff that goes on in most solid-D areas isn’t likely to happen here. During the 2016 primary season, though, I saw a good number of Bernie yard signs but none for Hillary, so I’m not sure what that means.
So that situation, plus being busy with work and family, has hindered me from running for office. The local officials do know who I am, though, because I frequently bend their ears on issues and on things that need to get done in town, and I have had some success. I’ll be retiring in a few years and we hope to move farther outside the city, so maybe I’ll give it a shot there.
Oh, and about your last point on the importance of getting conservatives elected at all levels — that’s very true. It seemed to me that a lot of local leftist officials were emboldened by Obama’s win, and a lot of the stuff we’re enduring now really got cut loose then, like demons from hell.