Seven myths that keep good Republicans on the sidelines

Let me describe the most dangerous creature in American politics. He is not the donor, the lobbyist or the cable-news screamer. He is the guy at the barbecue who says, "Somebody ought to do something about the school board," takes a second helping of potato salad, and goes home to do nothing about it. There are millions of him. He is good, he is decent, he is informed, and he has been talked out of acting by a set of excuses so familiar that they sound like wisdom.

I am going to take seven of those excuses and put each of them on trial. The method is simple: state the myth fairly, test it against the record, deliver a verdict, and hand over a first step small enough to take this week. If the excuse survives, I will say so. Some of them have a grain of truth, and a grain of truth is what keeps a myth alive.

Myth 1: "You need a pile of money to run"

The claim. Politics is a rich man's game. Without a war chest, an ordinary person has no chance.

The test. At the top of the ballot, the claim has weight. A race for governor or the U.S. Senate costs a fortune, because the electorate is enormous and you have to reach it through television, mail and a staff. But most of the ballot is not the top of the ballot. School boards, township boards, city wards, library districts, water districts and many county offices are won by walking the district and meeting voters, and what they cost is shoe leather. three first-time candidates, three races, and how each spends the first year runs the arithmetic on three labelled hypothetical races, and in the school board example the whole budget is a couple of thousand dollars, with the winning vote costing about a dollar and a half. Those are invented figures, not a promise, but the point survives: the number of voters in a small race is small, so the cost of reaching them is small. a campaign budget worksheet for the candidate with no money and no staff shows how a candidate with almost nothing builds a plan.

The verdict. True for the Senate, false for the water board. The money myth is a reason people avoid the very races they could win.

Your first step. Pull up the last election results for one local office and divide the total votes by two. That is your win number. Write it on a card. It will be smaller than you expected.

Myth 2: "The party picks the nominees in smoke-filled back rooms"

The claim. The establishment decides, and the voters rubber-stamp it, so why bother?

The test. In most states, the nominees for most offices are chosen by primary election, which means the voters of the party choose. A few states and a few offices use conventions or caucuses, where the choosers are delegates elected by party members at a precinct or county meeting. In neither case does a committee in a back room hold the ballot box. Caucus, primary or convention, how Republicans actually pick a nominee explains the differences, and they are real.

There is a kernel of truth here, and a conservative should be the first to say it. Party organizations have influence. Insiders talk. Some parties have endorsement processes, and some endorsements carry weight. But "influence" and "decision" are different words. An endorsement is a recommendation; the vote belongs to someone else. And the most reliable remedy for an organization run by a small circle is to enlarge the circle. A precinct committee seat in many counties is held by a handful of people, and in many precincts it is vacant. The back room is a room anybody can walk into who is willing to fill the chair. how to become a precinct committeeman and take over your county party shows how.

The verdict. Mostly false on nominations, partly true on influence, and fixable by showing up.

Your first step. Find out who your precinct committee person is, or whether the seat is empty. Your county party's website or the county election office will tell you.

Myth 3: "One person can't change a local vote"

The claim. I'm one voice among thousands. Why would it matter?

The test. Do the arithmetic on the body, not the electorate. A five-member school board has a majority at three votes. One member is one-fifth of the board, or 20 percent (1 ÷ 5 = 0.20). A member of the U.S. House is one of 435, which is 1 ÷ 435, about 0.23 percent. A single seat on a school board therefore carries roughly eighty-seven times the share of its body that a House seat does (20 ÷ 0.23 ≈ 87). Treat that as a rough comparison, not a law of nature, but you can see why small bodies are where one person matters.

Now the electorate. Elections do sometimes come down to a single vote, or to none. In Virginia in 2017, a race for the House of Delegates ended in a tie after a recount, and the winner was chosen by drawing a name from a bowl. The Republican candidate, David Yancey, won the draw. A tie in a legislative race is rare, but an election decided by a few dozen votes is not, and one person who recruits ten friends is a margin.

The verdict. False. The smaller the body, the bigger the person.

Your first step. Go to one meeting of the body you care about: school board, county commission, city council. Count the members. Count the people in the audience. Notice how few there are.

Myth 4: "You have to know the law to take part"

The claim. Government is complicated. Ordinary people will make fools of themselves.

The test. No one is born knowing the budget calendar. A candidate for the school board does not need to be a lawyer, an accountant or a teacher. The board has an attorney and a business office, and what it lacks, often, is someone who reads the packet and asks "why is this number up?" That is a skill any parent with a mortgage has. A Worksheet for Reading Your School District's Budget Line by Line is the sort of tool that shows how quickly the numbers become readable once you know where to look. Candidate guides from the county election office describe the filing rules in plain language. Parties hold trainings.

What you do need is to read the actual documents rather than the summary. That is a habit, not a degree. The Framers did not expect legislators to be experts. They expected them to be citizens who would learn the job, and they put their trust in representatives who answered to the voters.

The verdict. False, with a condition: you do have to read.

Your first step. Ask the clerk for the agenda packet for the next meeting. Read one item from start to finish. You will understand more of it than you think.

Myth 5: "Poll workers are all insiders"

The claim. The people who run elections are a closed club, so there is no place for a regular voter.

The test. Election judges and poll workers are, in the great majority of jurisdictions, ordinary residents recruited by the county election office and trained for a modest stipend, and election officials in many places say they have trouble finding enough of them. Many states require that the parties be represented among them. The details differ by state, so ask your county. The job is a long day, a few hours of training, and a very practical chance to see how a precinct runs. serving as an election judge, the questions people ask before signing up answers the usual questions.

If you want to watch rather than work, the law has a lane for that as well. lawful poll watching, what you may see, what you may say, what to report lays out what a citizen observer may and may not do. The reason to take part in the process is not suspicion. It is that an election is a public event, run by neighbours, and public events work best when the public is in the room. A voter who has worked a precinct once is a voter who understands why the machine works the way it does, and can explain it to the neighbour who doesn't.

The verdict. False. The club has a standing want-ad.

Your first step. Call the county election office and ask when the next training for election judges is held, and what the stipend is.

Myth 6: "Washington is the only place that matters"

The claim. The big decisions are made in the capital. Local politics is small stuff.

The test. Look at what touches a family on an ordinary week. The school the kids attend, who teaches there and how it is funded. The police and the sheriff. The property tax bill and how it was set. Zoning: whether you can build the garage, open the shop, or keep the chickens. Occupational licensing, driver's licenses, the state's income and sales taxes, the road in front of the house. Almost all of that is decided by state and local governments. That is not an accident. The Constitution gives Congress a list of enumerated powers, and the Tenth Amendment reserves the rest to the states or the people. Congress Can Only Do What the Constitution Lists and Madison Said So spells that out.

Conservatives of all people should know this, because the conservative case for federalism rests on it. Brandeis Called the States Laboratories and Conservatives Took Him at His Word tells the story of how the states became a laboratory for ideas. A movement that talks about returning power to the states and then declines to show up at a county commission meeting has a gap between its words and its feet.

Washington matters, of course. But Washington is also built from the bottom. Today's county commissioner is tomorrow's legislator, and the legislator is next decade's member of Congress. Ignoring the bottom of the ladder and then complaining about who is at the top is a strange way to run a movement.

The verdict. Half-true as a statement about budgets, false as a statement about daily life.

Your first step. Look at your last property tax bill and find the line items. Each one is a local body you can petition.

Myth 7: "Decent people stay out of politics"

The claim. It's nasty, personal and thankless, so only the worst people go in, and the rest of us should keep our distance.

The test. There is a real argument here, and I want to state it fairly. Public office draws criticism, sometimes harsh and unfair, and some people have faced harassment. A person who chooses not to put his family through that is making a sane judgement, not a cowardly one. I would not tell anyone otherwise.

Still, the claim falls apart as a general rule. The reasoning "decent people stay out, therefore the people in are indecent" runs in a circle: if decent people stay out, the seats go to whoever shows up, and the more decent people stay out, the truer the premise becomes. The mood in most local government is not a cage fight. It is an agenda item about culverts, a motion, a second, and a vote. The coffee is terrible. The audience is nobody. Real civility is not surrender, and Civil Discourse Is Not Surrender, and Lincoln and Scalia Prove It makes the case that you can hold your ground without losing your manners.

You can also set limits. Keep personal information off public filings where the law allows, set rules for your family about social media, and decide in advance what you will not respond to. Those are the same habits that sensible people use anywhere.

The verdict. Partly a real concern, mostly a self-fulfilling excuse.

Your first step. Ask someone who has served on a local board what they wish they had known. Offer to buy the coffee.

Why the myths last

Look at the list again. Money, back rooms, one voice, the law, insiders, Washington, nastiness. Every one of them has a true version, and every one of them is used as a reason to do nothing. That is how a myth works: it takes a small truth about the top of the system and applies it to the bottom, where it does not fit. The result is that the offices a citizen can win are the ones left open, and the offices a citizen can only watch on television are the ones that get all the attention.

The remedy is not enthusiasm. It's a calendar. Choose one office, one meeting, one number, one phone call. The person who goes to one board meeting and says three minutes of well-prepared remarks has done more for the cause than a hundred people who agree with him from the couch.

The bottom line

• Money matters at the top of the ticket and hardly at all at the bottom. Compute the win number for a local race before you decide you can't afford it.
• Nominees are mostly chosen by voters in primaries or by delegates anyone can become. If the circle is small, enlarge it by taking a precinct seat.
• A small body gives one person real weight: one seat on a five-member board is 20 percent of the body. Go to a meeting and count the audience.
• You do not need a law degree. You need to read the packet and ask the plain question. The clerk will give you the packet.
• Pick one first step from the seven above and do it this week. Call the election office, ask about the next election judge training, or ask your county chair which seats are empty.