The Clique that Rules Page County

According to Bloggers on this site, there is a Clique ruling Page County. The members of this clique are both Republicans and Democrats, although it seems the Democrats usually just voluntarily bow out and let the Republicans primarily win. What NICE Democrats! People who run for office as either a Republican or a Democrat, are subject to being co-opted as members of this clique after they win. So if they are not members before they are elected, they become members after the election, and get enveloped in the arms of the clique, where their minds are influenced, and they change their votes, AGAINST the people, in favor of the dangerous Clique. The only people who are not subject to this seductive pressure to join are the Independents.
Folks, I didn't write that, I'm just summarizing the opinions posted on the Blog.
But this next part, I did write:
Calling on my twenty plus years as a corporate manager, and my seven years teaching Organizational Behavior at the college level . ..
that's not really as outrageous a proposition as it at first sounds.
Every group in humanity has a culture, really a subculture, that defines its “rules of behavior” and its accepted norms. This will happen in every human group, be it a family, a high school, a summer camp, an office, a farm, or a factory. In high school, which is where most of us first noticed that ‘cliques’ existed, this clique will define the measure of what it takes to be cool. Others will copy the mode of dress of the clique they wish to join, as there will be various types of cliques, and membership will center around behaviors such as dress code, language, tattoos, and risk taking. Membership in said Clique confers privileges. You are respected by others. You are associated with high prestige people. It enhances your self esteem. This is true whether the clique is a group that rides motorcycles, or a group that rabble rouses, or a group that governs. A clique runs Page County Watch. Every person chooses which cliques they join, and which cliques they aspire to join, in their daily life choices.
If you are not in the “in” clique, you will be in the “out” clique.
In a few scattered places, there will always be a Lone Ranger, who bears no allegiance, and carries his own flag. But even then, others will associate themselves with HIM, and then there’s a clique of the Lone Ranger.
When we elect our governing officials, we hope that each of them will consider US to be their clique. We hope that their clique allegiance will be to all the people they represent. If we don’t want illegal aliens in our county, we hope they will work to keep illegal aliens out. If we don’t want trucks barreling over 211, we hope they will do what it takes to keep . . . wait a minute. If we don’t want trucks, that pretty much means we don’t want business.
So now we’ve presented our elected officials with a dilemma. We do want business. But we don’t want trucks. We do want jobs. But we don’t want to change the rural nature. We’ve given them a dilemma, and a paradox. One too difficult to solve.
Now even though our elected officials have listened to us, and have wanted to make US their clique . . . they don’t know what to do. The question is too hard. And let’s not forget, these are basically volunteers. We don’t actually pay them enough to quit their day jobs to do this.
So in the time they have to work on this, they say, “what should I do?” They look around to see where to get advice and information. They look in the audience of their meetings, and who do they find? Empty seats, basically. So what else are they going to do? They can’t wait for a referendum on the ballot with every decision. They have to make decisions. So they obviously, as anyone would do, have to call on their own value system, and the people they consider to also have good judgement, which must be, would always be, their own friends. Anybody would do that. And as it happens, in a small town, where people can sit around and rock on the porch, their friends happen to also be in the Rotary Club, or fellow Republicans, or Democrats that are sitting at the next table at the Supper club. Well, who else would it be? What else would you expect them to do?
And then to those who aren’t in that circle of friends, who don’t go to those specific places, it looks like a clique.
By strict definition, it is a clique.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
So, yes, I think there is a Clique that Rules Page County. And by the nature of Humanity, there always will be. You, the voters, get the right to object to or affirm which clique the people you elect are in. If you throw out everybody who is in office right now, because you object to the clique they are in, you will get new people who are in a new clique, and then there will be a DIFFERENT clique who rules Page County. Maybe it will be better, maybe it will be worse. But it will be a clique, just the same. The trick is to get the voice of the people to be so loud it pressures whichever clique is in power to get with the program.
So, speak up and Speak Out. And most importantly, say what you say based on facts and numbers and research, whenever possible. Keep the personal attacks down, and the objective arguments up. There’s going to be a Clique that rules Page County, whether it’s this one or the next one. So give that clique what it needs to do the job right. The Clique isn’t Evil, Bad, or Corrupt. It’s just a natural phenomenon, like weather.
It’s Nature’s Law. So go with it, don’t fight it. And most importantly, don’t throw up your hands in defeat and say, “why should I vote?” Vote and Blog and Call in to the radio show. Your voice will influence the clique. Maybe you think it didn’t in the past, but it did, it just sometimes takes a while.
What do you think? Post your Comments.