Politics Ain’t Beanbag. Beanbag Ain’t Even Beanbag: It’s Cornhole.
An Editor’s Note by Ben Pollock
When someone says they support the U.S. form of government, representative democracy, the Constitution, three branches, checks and balances, and even the Arkansas state motto “regnat populus” (Latin for “the people rule”), these give me a set of assumptions. Unless a petition for an initiated act or amendment is abhorent, I and what I expected to be nearly everyone else would sign the clipboard to give everyone a chance to render a black-and-white yay or nay on Election Day.
In past years, some proposals, say on casinos or intoxicants, went a little far for me. But I signed those petitions, let’s give everyone a chance to rule. We don’t seem to do things that way anymore. Now the petition phase is more the larval stage, where it’s easier to squash the worm than swat the sly fly later at the polls or in court. Slam petition gatherers with vandalism or threats, how sick. So much for dope.
That was as far as I got in writing a column for the July newsletter. After lunch Sunday, July 21, the 2024 campaign year flipped another 180. Again.
Make that a 120, with the Trump assassination attempt perhaps the first 120. Let’s leave room for a third 120, to round the circle with 360 total.
What strikes me as useful for today’s UA employee newsletter is not considering the whys and wherefores of President Biden stepping away from a re-election campaign. Nor to guess who Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate might be. Nor the chances of a disruptive Democratic National Convention.
Instead, look to November and close to home. Each of our votes here counts more than ever. Voting for neither party’s presidential candidate nor a third-party hopeful is to surrender the tiny BUT REAL power that any of us have.
Even if the presidential election looks like it won’t go our way, we can exert more voter power “down ballot.” Note: No race in 2024 is down— they all count more than before.
We have state legislators and county justices of the peace to choose. Plus mayoral and other municipal candidates. Vote tallies at this level do come down to near ties in the low hundreds or even to the 10s. You cannot say your vote won’t count in these. Do you have a problem with road conditions, tenants’ rights, law enforcement or other issues? Area incumbents or fledglings in the 2010s and ’20s in their comments and actions reflect the national agenda setters — they model themselves along either Trump or the Clinton/Biden/Harris ideologies. (What about bland candidates who say they just want to make things better? They’re annoying, make you work to find out what “better” means to them.)
Pick a side. Candidates sure do. Your vote can make a difference in local elections.
Then where to begin? Local 965 answers many voting or election questions with a list of resources. Top of the list is voter registration. You’ve got till Monday, Oct. 7. Does that sound like a lot of time, here in mid-summer? Consider that the current Arkansas government does not care for online registration. You’re going to need more than a few days to order, receive, complete and postal-mail back that paper form, then to confirm you are officially registered.
While you’re in the poll booth, go ahead, choose your president. Power adds up.
About the photo: I’d never before seen this picture of the Johnson family. It can be a counterpoint to what we think we know about 1968 and 2024.
Announcement of endorsement: “National Education Association Recommends Vice President Kamala Harris for President: Nation’s Students and Educators Need Tireless Advocate in the Oval Office”
Ben Pollock is vice president of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965.
This column was published first in the July 2024 edition of the Local 965 newsletter.
UA-Fayetteville Education Association 
