An Opinion by Joene DePlancke

Opinion

Dear Citizens of Gilmer, Fannin and Pickens counties,As a citizen of the United States and a resident and voter in Gilmer County I am frustrated and appalled at how politics are controlled in our counties. There is little I can do on a national level to fight the corruption and control by the two major parties other than no longer contributing at the national level and only contributing directly to candidates I wish to support.

But here in our local counties we should not let local races be controlled by power, intimidation and money. Two races that I have tried to stay abreast of and informed about have candidates with the biggest war chests refusing to debate the other candidates. And, if they do appear in a public forum they have set the criteria under which they will speak. I think they have forgotten who is boss. You see, we, the voters, should decide what we want to know not let the candidate or their handlers tell us what we are allowed to know. Instead, when a candidate can dictate how they will address the voters, and control who can ask questions and can actually prevent questions from being asked by the voters, you will only learn what they WANT you to learn.

So, in other words, they get to show up, and we get to sit there like puppets. They tell us what they want us to hear and we cannot ask why they have or haven’t done something. Then they shake some hands, and if you are lucky enough to get close enough to confront them with a question, one of their handlers will step in and say that candidate so and so would love to stay and talk, but he/she has to be at another event, and they get whisked away.

So, when election day rolls around, people will be more likely to continue to re-elect candidates/incumbents that continue to do nothing for you because you were never given the opportunity to learn what he does or doesn’t do, only what he wants to tell you. Is that how you want the election process to work? In every campaign venue we need to demand that they take questions from the floor and that any statement made can be questioned by other candidates or by the moderator. Anything less is just another meaningless campaign speech. The organizers will try and tell you there isn’t time for questions. Tell them to make time!

Remember, that is how Obamacare got passed, there was NO TIME to read it!

Joene DePlancke
Ellijay, GA

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