Retired S.D. teacher Grinager: Democracy suffers by using the alphabet method by both voters and our employees

I’ve always appreciated the alphabet and how I can use it. Reading, writing, and speaking have definitely made my life richer. However, I think the alphabet is a weak and flawed tool to use when making political decisions.

Voters actually “hire” and “fire” our elected officials. Taxpayers provide our elected officials with their salaries and sometimes with benefit packages. That puts us, the people, in the position of being the boss for elected officials.

I believe an absent boss harms themselves, their employees, and their system. So, I ask, are we absent political bosses? Do we know the job performance (voting record) of the people we hired? Do we understand why they voted the way they did? 

If not, we might be absent bosses which makes us uninformed voters.

That’s dangerous because when uninformed, we tend to vote using the alphabet method. We walk into the voting booth, check out the ballot, wonder who some of the names are and what they stand for, or recognize some names and falsely think … I know them.

Often what happens next is voting by the alphabet. That voter looks for letters of the alphabet (usually R or D but sometimes I or NP) on which to base their votes.

This type of thinking indicates the person believes all good ideas come from one arena and all poor ideas come from other arenas. This simply isn’t true. In my 25 years of teaching school, I learned that great ideas come from all types of students who think, act, and believe differently.

If I had ignored groups of students each year wondering if anything good could possibly come from them, we would have missed out on unique perspectives and improved lessons. Voters must do our research to see how our elected officials are performing and then base our next vote on that information rather than on the alphabet.

To become a better-informed boss-voter, try these sites:

State legislator’s voting records: https://sdlegislature.gov. (You might be surprised.)

Federal legislators voting records: govtrack.us/congress/votes. (You might be surprised.)

The flip side of this is our elected public officials/employees and their responsibilities to us. Are they accessible to us?

If you had employees who evaded you, controlled the times and ways they’re willing to interact with you, refused to answer some questions, or acted as if you were invisible until it was time to renew their contract, would you feel positively about their job performance?

What if you had employees who believed that good ideas/solutions came only from one arena in the workplace and refused to work with entire groups of colleagues?

I think our elected public officials may sometimes base their votes on the alphabet which is just as dangerous as the voter using that method. Most big problems are improved through brainstorming, negotiating, and compromising rather than by using the highly partisan alphabet method.

Our elected official’s responsibility is to openly listen to all constituents, and be consistently forthcoming, honest, and transparent using all methods at their disposal.

To become a better employee/elected official, try:

Advising staff members to respond logically to written concerns rather than using canned responses that don’t make sense. All your offices should know your schedule and be able to quickly and clearly share that information with callers. 

Meet with many different types of local small groups rather than just business chambers or businesses. Try meeting with groups that may not identify with your alphabet letter.

Regularly schedule in-person townhalls and publish those places and times, making it available to a wide cross-section of your constituents.

I believe the alphabet method in politics erodes democracy which is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

It produces a highly divided population that is unable or unwilling to effectively communicate with people outside their arena. It can lead to single-party rule which, in the long-term, becomes unhealthy.

If we love our state and country, we must all do better at our part in the political process and stop relying on the alphabet method.

Ruth Grinager taught middle school science in South Dakota public schools for 25 years. She is retired and lives in Sioux Falls.

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons