Squeaking silently
Just when I thought last week’s editorial had put an end to the incredulous comments we regularly receive about how anyone could have voted for Donald Trump, I suffered a relapse of anti-Trump hammering while speaking last week at something called the Local News Summit in New Orleans.
Leading journalists and foundation officials from all around the country kept coming up to me and earnestly seeking an explanation for why a state such as ours would support a candidate who even many of those who voted for him don’t particularly like.
The answer I typically give isn’t one most people like to hear.
A disrupter like our former and once-again president isn’t supported because of his policies, which sometimes seem even more ill-conceived than those of our former governor, Sam Brownback. Instead, he’s supported precisely because he is a disrupter — ready, willing, and able to take swift, bold actions, whether they are the right thing to do or not.
People are tired of feeling out of control, just as we’re tired of the “heads I win; tails you lose” scenario mentioned in this week’s other editorial.
Most people, for example, understand that it’s probably bad policy for police to chase drivers at high speeds through residential areas when the only thing they’re wanted for is speeding. Yet that’s exactly what happened Tuesday morning in a chase that went all over Marion County, through the City of Peabody, and ended up somewhere near Wichita.
Imagine what might have happened if your dog or cat or, worse yet, child was trying to cross a street when a whole parade of vehicles going twice the speed limit careened down the road.
The driver had been identified. Officers could have simply blocked entrances to densely populated areas and waited for him to return to his home — which smart officers, like those in Hillsboro, have tried to do in previous chases.
Adrenalin got the better of them, however, and troopers and deputies from throughout Central Kansas chased the driver nonetheless.
It’s kind of like all the calls to the county’s extremely costly ambulance service. A huge portion of them result in no patient being transported — even when people clearly aren’t hurt or definitely need to go to a hospital but want to avoid having to pay for an ambulance. One of the worst examples came this past week when a caller from the county lake wanted an ambulance to come without lights and sirens, then declined to be taken to a hospital but went by private vehicle — with the ambulance following the person in.
Clearly, that’s an abuse of the “no transport, no charge” policy of the ambulance system. Given how much ambulance transportation costs, the reluctance to pay is understandable. But someone ends up having to pay, and in this case, the someones are all the other taxpayers.
The chase Tuesday provided another example of government seeming to be outside the control of the people who pay for it. Very little could be learned about the chase by listening to Marion County radio transmissions. They’re now encrypted, supposedly because of a federal requirement. Yet transmissions by state troopers and Harvey County deputies could clearly be heard. If encryption was required federally in Marion County — which actually doesn’t seem to be the case — why don’t other jurisdictions require it?
We at the newspaper hear complaints like these with regularity, and you’ll find plenty of such complaints posted on anti-social media. Do citizens actually take these concerns to their elected officials? For some reason, they don’t. Some fear retribution. Some fear looking stupid. Some just don’t have courage to come forward. But the result is the same: They become frustrated and feel disenfranchised, and that in turn leads them to want to vote for someone — anyone — who can serve as a disrupter.
The fault, dear readers, is not in our government. It is in ourselves. Squeaky wheels get grease, but only if the squeaking is heard. Complaining anonymously to journalists or posting rants online don’t let those with the grease hear where it’s needed. What they do accomplish is create an environment in which populism and potential for takeover by politicians with dictatorial tendencies flourish.
— ERIC MEYER