“All politics is local,” so said some astute person. We definitely had local politics here in Sierra County with the judge’s race. Lots of signs and lots of letters to the editor, particularly detailing political parties. In the culture and the filing for office, the judgeship up for vote has not been partisan. The candidates do not say for the ballot whether they are a Democrat or a Republican. Republicans definitely wanted our basically Red (Republican) County to know which candidate was a Republican. It became one of his attributes. All other judge races I have known over the years here never spoke of whether a candidate was one or the other, on either side. It has been comforting, if not totally an acknowledged part of non-partisan offices, that those offices were just that — non-partisan. Almost all of our voted county offices are listed as non-partisan. The heat is high enough for partisanship that it has reached Sierra County.

As this citizen’s view expands to national and even world happenings, I, like some others, am concerned — very concerned — about the seeming need and call for “strong men,” in other words, dictators. Democracy is not esteemed around the world. (There has been a survey that confirms this slide, which is creeping and sometimes leaping.) One dictator, Putin, made sure there was no real opposition on the recent presidential ballot, that gave him an overwhelming majority — hmmm. Putin is more than suspected of pursuing any competition, even to foreign countries, to kill them. The famed Navalny boldly went back to Russia after surviving a poison attack, and died in one of Putin’s worst prisons. There is no opposition print or media in countries like Russia, China, and others. We have our many struggling media outlets, still. One could not even say Russia was “at war” publicly.

There are many things I think the two political tribes agree on. This is local. We want security/safety for ourselves and our loved ones. We need water, food, and shelter. We want fairness in any actions that are taken either personally or by any larger group, including our own government. We need freedom/liberty to expand our world without endangering or limiting others by so doing. At least, this is my ideal of what our commonalities are. There have always been some throughout human history who are not attuned to this commonality. They are sure that the selfish route is best for them, and in the end everyone else. Ayn Rand, coming from Russia and writing her famous book, “Atlas Shrugged,” totally adhered to this philosophy. What has become clear with another Russian, Vladimir Putin, is that the selfish “my way or the highway” (read prison or death) is not in the interest of himself or the globe of humanity.

In the USA there are places of people whose only purpose is to organize for all the commonalities that bring joy to all the community. Sierra County definitely has those places. You read about them in the “Mess” every week. Keep on keeping on….engage….cross the tribal line. I believe that politics is and has been both local AND global for eons…engage, engage.

Until next time.