Thanks to those who serve

To those who run for office and win, those who run and lose and even to those who sit on the sidelines and criticize those in the ring, a hearty thank-you.

We need you all. Those folks are an essential part of the democratic process and they all contribute to the general welfare in their own way.

With those who run for, win and then serve in those offices the need for thanks is obvious. But the same goes for those who never really had a chance to win the offices they sought. Their fervent interest helps generate attention and interest from those who eventually win and fulfill the duties of those offices. If nobody wanted the jobs, nobody would run.

Obviously we always have a number of candidates who would be absolute disasters if they won and managed to serve in those offices. And over time a certain percentage of those potential disasters do manage to win and work their will on the community.

And sometimes our worse nightmares come true. I could name a number of those folks but will refrain from such mention to avoid discouraging other potential candidates — some of them good people — from throwing their hats into the ring.

It would be nice if we could keep the crackpots out of politics but that would reduce the attention given to such races and necessarily contract the number of acceptable people entering them. The good people would often be less interested in serving if they did not feel that the alternatives to themselves would be detrimental to the best interests of our community. It’s up to us to sort them out.

It is one of the great benefits of the American system that the races are wide open and generally anyone can run for the available seats. There are some limits and they are valuable. Generally candidates must meet certain requirements like a minimum age and being a resident of the community, state and nation in which they are running.

I say letting anyone throw their hat in the ring is one of the great benefits since having crackpots in the running for open positions encourages those with more stable and thoughtful personalities to throw their own hats in the ring.

The downside of such an arrangement is that the loonie toons are drawn to the battles and sometimes offer themselves as candidates.And sometimes they manage to fool the voters and get elected.

Fortunately the crackpots will show their true colors early in their careers, the public knows what to expect and our community’s good people intervene to ward off the worst possible outcomes.

The occasional reigns of the loonies can discourage the good people and sometimes cause serious damage to the system, but democracy is flexible enough to absorb damage and eventually for the good people to emerge and make things right.

It is understandable that many people are skeptical of the inevitability of reason to emerge and take control. And sometimes even sideline observers like myself shake our heads at decisions made in public positions. But that is part of the system and in the long run our worries generally subside.

America has been a viable democracy for 246 years now (since 1776) and the system has proven itself. Certainly some of us are tempted to shout: “Hey, what about....?” but those folks should keep in mind that we and our nation are still here despite the occasional elective poor decision.

Democracy does work and the evidence is all around us, even though we can all generally recite a few incidents in our history that we wish had involved our enemies instead of ourselves.

The system works and we should all wish it well.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.