Know your representatives

"To win the next battle, the next election, we need to be smarter than the person on the other side. And that starts with knowing who represents us..."

I was going to address this earlier but became distracted by the moron march on Saturday outside our state fairgrounds. First a confession - I recently (in the past few years) really got religion. By that I mean I found out what which CD I was in, which SD I was in, which precinct I was in, and so forth. I did know who my US Senators were and my Congressman was, but that was about it. Trust me - I am much, much better now.

I have two points to make. First is about our overall lack of knowledge in knowing our representation. This is not to throw stones, as I have already said I have been just as bad if not worse. Before the fair and during by booth duty at the fair, I was amazed when talking to some folks. I was amazed how little they knew about their representation. Some did not even know who their Congressman was.

What I found the most interesting was this - many people were very upset about their state taxes. And yet they did not know which party their representatives belonged to. That is the one thing which really blew me away. The lesson was this - we do all of us, need to get smarter with our national, state and local politics. And when I say local, I mean down to our city council, county board and school boards.

My second point. If someone asks you which Metropolitan Council District you live in, and who your representative is, and if you don't know the answer, wear that like a badge of honor. This fiat organization, which wields so much power and authority, has no ELECTED representatives. Of course you would not know anything about the Met Council - nor should you. There are no elections, no campaigning, no nothing. 

I found out my Met Council District is #9. My unelected, unaccountable representative is Mr. Reynoso. I have never met him. I have never heard from him. I know nothing about him except he is a big union guy. And yet he represents my city and many others in Anoka County. For a country who started out by being fed up with taxation without representation, it is amazing how we have come to this. 

Well, the Met Council fight is a fight for another day. And it will be. This year we have bigger fish to fry. I will close by saying this - to win the war, to win the next election, we need to be smarter than the other guy. And that starts with knowing who our reps are. If your neighbors don't know either, help them out. Trust me - they will thank you for it.