Voting was the easy part. Now it’s time for the real work to begin.
What’s the real work, you ask. Actually holding elected officials accountable. We hold them accountable by paying attention to what they do while in office. We need to make sure elected officials understand a fairy godmother didn’t wave her magic wand and place them into those positions. No, voters went to a polling site, cast a vote and elected that person, so he or she owes us.
I may sound like a broken record, but it’s high time the African-American community demands more from our elected officials — regardless of party or ethnicity. I’m frustrated because we don’t know our power. We’re so used to thinking in terms of what we’re allowed to do, we don’t think about what we can do. We often have a one-sided relationship with many politicians. We’re so happy to get our politician of choice in office that we let that person slide — especially if he or she is Black — when that individual is not holding up his or her end of the bargain. We make excuses for that politician, noting how much good the person is “trying” to do but “they” won’t let him. When we hear of corruption, we shrug and move on. We see our neighborhoods crumbling, and we complain to each other, but do we call or email that elected official’s office? Do we visit his or her office and voice our complaint? We know how to complain, but we don’t know how to complain effectively. It does nothing if we’re talking loud to the wrong people. Then we complain about being ignored and how our vote doesn’t matter. However, the next election cycle we turn around and vote for that same person, rationalizing he or she isn’t so bad and is better than “the other guy.” We only see some of these politicians at church or other “Black” events when it’s time to ask for our vote.
What kind of relationship is this? If this were any other relationship — friend, significant other, family member — those who love and care about us would admonish us to leave this relationship or set new terms because we’re being used and abused.
I’m saying we need to do the same with regard to politicians. We need to close the door on these one-sided relationships. We need to watch their actions. How do their votes or policies affect our communities? How responsive are they to our complaints? How often do they appear in our neighborhoods?
This accountability approach may require us to air our dirty laundry, but it’s past time to stop sweeping things under the rug when they harm our community. A politician’s ego isn’t more important than the greater good. If more politicians felt their constituents would actually hold them accountable, maybe more would act with integrity and there would be no need to worry about airing dirty laundry.
I’m just as guilty as anyone else. I’m tired of being frustrated about politicians catering to the interests of others. I’m challenging myself to do better and to pay more attention overall, and I’ve identified one area where I definitely want to do better: judges. Judges get very little attention during an election, but there’s usually a fair amount of judges on the ballot, and they wield a significant amount of power. How are they using that power? I plan to find out.
What about you? I challenge you, dear reader, to find an area where you can do better when it comes to holding an elected official accountable.
