Working for Teton County has been a tremendous boon to my knowledge of local politics. Since I lack a department or an office, they have put me in the planning and building office for the time being, where much of the Teton County drama takes place.
"You're telling me I can't build a house on my property?!?"
"So you're saying that the new code will rezone my property to what?!"
I am convinced that the 2 worst jobs in the county are: Planning Administrator, and the Editor of Teton Valley News.
No matter what Kristin (planning administrator) or Scotty (editor) say or do, they are wrong. They are biased. They have an agenda.
Teton Valley is, in my opinion, a microcosm of America. Right now the county is deeply divided along political lines. There are rural conservatives and outdoorsy progressives, each making up a large percentage of the electorate.
What this creates is a tremendously hard county to govern. We have a very diverse county. And there is only one way to maintain order and get things done here: politics.
Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests, and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those interests, or at least a majority of them. You follow a set of rules to help you reach these compromises in a way everybody considers legitimate.
The downside of politics is that no single group will get everything they want. It is messy, limited and no issue is ever really settled. But isn't that also the beauty of politics, and one of the beauties of America? Consider the alternative: rule by some authoritarian tyrant who clobbers everyone in his way.
A growing trend I'm seeing are groups who are against politics: The Tea Party, The Constitution Party, The Green Party, etc. They want to elect people with no political experience. They delegitimize compromise and deal making. They have a "my way or the highway" mentality, which inspires their base.
This "my way or the highway" tendency does a couple things. It creates a dysfunctional government where nothing gets decided on because there is no compromise. It also fools us, the voters, into thinking that the polarizing candidate we agree with will do lots of great and productive things once elected.
I believe the smartest thing you can do if you have conservative views is to vote for a center-right candidate. Someone who is a master at compromise. Someone who can see and understand opposing viewpoints. Someone who has the smarts to understand that an imperfect decision is frequently better than no decision. Someone who understands that even though he/she got elected, that he/she is now making decisions for an incredibly diverse group of people.
Politics is hard in Teton Valley. It is hard in America. How can you arrive at a decision where you are trying to hear out everyone's viewpoint?
Teton County just purchased land along the Teton River and is going to replace an old boat ramp, ad parking, etc. They want to have a design that reflects the wants and needs of the community. They sent me around gathering opinions from stakeholders in the valley. One river supply shop thought the parking lot should be WAAAY bigger. A large fishing guide company thought the parking lot should be smaller. A fishing lodge upstream thought the boat ramp simply should not exist. A rental company thought there should be more parking for non-fishing boaters (SUP's, kayaks, etc). How can the county engineer ultimately decide on the final site plan, taking all of these view points into account?
I would hope that when everyone goes out to vote, that they keep this one thought in mind: Politics is compromise. The most effective politicians are ones who can hammer out workable arrangements with the other side. Ineffective politicians are principled, "My way or the highway" dictators who don't want to listen to or compromise with opposing views to their own.
