Category: Politics

Primary Day: Tales from the Front Lines

By Gary Bennett

Being an election judge, or maybe more accurately a “poll worker”, is not for the faint of heart. Don’t get me wrong, it’s tiring but great. I love to help people, and it is fascinating to watch the democratic process at work. This is about the only way I get to use my long-ago Poly Sci degree except for the occasional opinion piece in this paper.  

I’m in the middle of a four-year term as an election judge, our official title, and performed those duties at a local elementary school on Primary Day, July 19, 2022.

The day is certainly long. My day began at 6 am as our team prepared the school for the polls to open at 7. The first thing I noticed was how hot it was in the gym. No one had bothered to turn on the air conditioning. I can’t blame anyone. How could they have foreseen that it might be hot in the middle of July? I’m not complaining because after we scrambled to come up with about 20 fans, we nosed the room temperature down from 80 degrees to about 78 when the polls closed at 8 pm. I can only come to the conclusion that Governor Hogan must have vetoed air conditioning when he vetoed counting mail-in ballots before Primary Day.

I wish I could say I was a volunteer, but that is not true. You may not realize that poll workers are paid. Of course, for some inexplicable reason, we are told not to expect our paychecks until September at the earliest. No one exactly knows why. I believe the state may be waiting for some of us to die. After all, our team averaged about 70 years of age. And, may God bless our two chief judges, one a democrat and one a republican.  Both had been through the election wars for over 30 years now. What type of personality deficiency would cause such a condition? I asked them but got only grunts.

At least turnout was pretty light, which gave me plenty of time for observation. We only ran about 1,000 people through our polling place, and I interacted without almost all of them. I either selected and gave out the proper ballots, helped people vote while being careful to look away, or helped people scan their ballots into the mysterious ballot scanner.

About two-thirds of the voters were registered republicans. Not quite one-third were democrats. This figures. We know that democrats hate crowds and tend to vote by mail so they can vote grandma’s ballot, too. Just kidding? A small number were independents, there to vote in the school board race. The independents, 50 or so, were almost always 20-somethings. They may have had it with the two big parties. That’s what one told me.

A lot of people came with youngsters in tow. Most of them were republicans. Democrats seemed to be happier than republicans, many of which you’d have to describe as grumpy. Maybe the presence of their children had something to do with that. Many republicans were quite wary of the process, especially the vote scanner. More than one asked how I can be sure their vote was actually counted. I can’t.

I got pretty good at guessing the party affiliation of people as they walked in the door. For men, the shorter the hair, bigger the bellies, and frownier the faces meant they were republicans. For women it was a little harder. The younger the women and the tattoo-ier they were usually meant they were democrats. Nearly 100 percent of all blacks were democrats.

More folks than you might imagine made mistakes on the ballots and had to start over. They mostly voted for more candidates in a contest than they were allowed. I’m sorry to report, mistake-makers were mostly republicans. Who can blame them? The more republicans, the better, right? A couple of other folks had trouble finding their way out of the small gym. Their votes still counted.

One young man brought a blank ballot to the scanning station. That is fine, of course. I’m told some folks do that as protest. That begs the question, of course, why don’t they just stay home and save the trouble? Turns out he was confused and hadn’t even voted yet. He was a republican.

One person came in with a sample ballot to consult and was disappointed that it was not for his precinct. Another wondered where all the good candidates were. Turned out he was a democrat and wanted to vote for republicans. After voting, he changed his party affiliation, which one can do.

A few people were indignant that the touchscreen software forced them to look at the names of all people vying for the republican nomination for governor before they could vote for Dan Cox. I saw the same thing in 2020 for Donald Trump. You don’t want to be a candidate on the second page. Just ask Kelly Schulz.

One person erroneously voted for a few of the so-called Education, Not Indoctrination school board candidates and came back for a new ballot. Her exact quote was “I didn’t mean to vote for these idiots.” The most predominant voting literature carried in and consulted was the “apple” ballot supplied by the teacher’s union. Next was some literature from the firefighter’s union extolling the virtues of their preferred candidates.

People are determined to vote. One person, bless her heart, asked for info on all the candidates because she didn’t know anything about them. “I don’t want to vote for just the best names,” she said. When told we didn’t have any literature to give her and were not allowed to do so anyway, she departed and came back to vote a few hours later. One can only surmise she finally did her research which makes you wonder what rock she may have been living under all these months. Another asked me for recommendations on who to vote for, which I did not and could not provide.

As I trudged home at the end of the day at 10 pm, (yes, the polls closed at 8 but it took two hours to tear things down and get the gym back into shape) I couldn’t help but smile. As imperfect as we are, at least we all get our say. Oh, and cell phones are actually illegal in the polling place. You might as well outlaw oxygen.

Gun Owners: Only You Can Fix This

By Gary Bennett

What bothers me most about our periodic gun debates after the latest sorrowful massacre is the predictable push back from gun owners. Just once, it would be refreshing if some of them would stand up and say, “OK, you’ve got a point. We can’t keep going on like this. Mental health care is a problem but so are guns. The tool I use for recreation and to put additional food on my table is causing excruciating pain for so many people when used improperly. I’ve got to do something to help.”

Sadly, you never hear that. You only hear about the perceived infringement of their own rights. They seem reluctant to even join the debate in a meaningful way beyond a need for more guns so good guys with guns can win the day. We see that very rarely happens. No, they are often happy to blame mental illness, ignoring the fact that only 23 percent of shooters have such a diagnosis according to the CDC. Once the furor of the latest bout of gun violence dies down, meaningful reform is quickly forgotten. Will this time be different?

I’m pessimistic because our democracy doesn’t seem to be working the way it should. You know the statistics. Nearly 9 in 10 Americans support enhanced background checks, including 84 percent of Republicans. Two-thirds support an assault weapon ban and nearly three-fourths support a national “red flag” law. And yet progress never comes because most of these Americans are congregated closely together in blue states with like-minded senators. The smaller, more rural red states stand behind the filibuster and minority rights no matter who it harms.

I wish I could see the attraction of guns as recreation and sport. I don’t. I feel safe in my community so I don’t need to own a gun for protection. But – and stay with me for a moment – I do love biking and hiking. I’d like to think that if my bike or hiking poles were being used by bad, evil, mentally ill people to maim and kill the most vulnerable among us, I would want to help. I would feel some responsibility. I would start by turning in any extra bikes or poles I had lying about so they wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. I would join with others to lobby bike manufacturers to stop making extra fast, high-capacity bikes because they are simply not needed. And I would stop giving money to the National Bike Association because they are not interested in helping. You get my point.

This is ironic but I have to say it: gun owners, you needn’t be afraid. No one is coming for your guns. For better or worse you have the Second Amendment in your corner and no one is going to repeal it. You sure have to give the NRA credit, though. As shady as their finances are, they’ve been wildly successful making you think that if you give an inch the rest of us will take a mile. Don’t worry – it’s not worth the fight. Meaningful gun reform can only come from gun owners. The ball is in your court. I only hope your child is not next.

Court Packing to Finally Bear Abortion Fruit

By Gary Bennett

The Roberts Court, April 23, 2021 Seated from left to right: Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor Standing from left to right: Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. Photograph by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

After nearly 50 years as the law of the land, it seems the end of Roe v. Wade is upon us. Who could have seen this coming? As it turns out—everyone.

It doesn’t matter that nearly two-thirds of Americans support a women’s right of bodily self-determination. This day has been inevitable ever since Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett ascended to the Supreme Court under disgusting (even for politics) circumstances. We should never forget the rank political maneuvering that got them there and brought us to this day.

Gorsuch was appointed by Trump after then senate majority leader Mitch McConnell refused to even give Obama’s pick, Merick Garland, a hearing nine months before the 2016 presidential election. For nearly a year the Court operated with eight justices. Then McConnell turned around and rushed Kavanaugh through despite believable allegations of sexual misconduct that were never fully investigated. Not to be outdone, he then pushed through Barrett just seven weeks before the 2020 election that Trump would lose and during (during!) early voting for president. The hypocrisy (again, even for politics) has been stunning.

This whole sordid affair has never gotten the attention it deserves. It is court packing, pure and simple. One could hardly blame Biden if he were to immediately name and push through three or four new justices. There is nothing but howls and screams from the right to stop him. Of course Biden would never do this but since the right only understands scorched-earth politics, the left should abide. 

One might wonder how mitch McConnell sleeps at night but then you remember who we’re talking about. If there was ever a person singularly interested in obtaining and keeping raw political power no matter the consequences and who it tramples, it is him. He admits as much.

I’ve written before in this paper that the majority leader in the Senate, no matter the party or person occupying this made-up office that is not even mentioned in the Constitution, has too much power. In the case of McConnell, he was singularly making decisions that affected all Americans based on the electoral wishes of a majority of a small southern state’s voters. I never got a chance to vote for McConnell or McConnell’s opponent, and probably neither did you.

Now, with this new precedent, it would not surprise anyone if the right-leaning Court begins to systematically chip away at same-sex marriage, LBGTQ rights, and even the separation of church and state. And, if the GOP gains control of both houses and is able to win the presidency in 2024, the complete and total end of abortions in the U.S. for any reason would likely become a reality no matter what most Americans think. Iron-fisted rule by a loud minority over a quieter, less organized majority is, historically, how democracies begin to crumble.

I clearly remember the day in 1973 when the Supreme Court found in favor of Roe, and suddenly, receiving and performing abortions were no longer a crime. The ruling, while critically important, did not throw the country into crisis mode. It even felt like a compromise in some ways. Even the most callous of citizens agreed that, if we had to have abortions, better they be performed safely by trained clinicians than in some dark alley by someone with little or no training or by the desperate women themselves. Red states were even able to put some restrictions in place, but it seemed like everyone could work with that. Those kinder, gentler days seem to be gone forever.

It’s Not You–It’s Me (Breaking Up America)


By Gary Bennett

As I complete my mail-in ballot request and prepare to serve as an election judge again in this great state of Maryland, I can’t help but be grateful I live in a place that comfortably aligns with my political sensibilities and vision for America.

I know that is not true for everyone.

I can’t imagine living in a state like West Virginia or Texas where the majority political opinion is so much different than my own, and the political leaders seem to take such delight in marginalizing the opposition citizenry like they aren’t really citizens at all.

As for my conservative friends, I can’t imagine how it must be for you living in the Old Line State. You must cringe every time the democratic legislature passes a crazy bill like banning the sale and possession of untraceable “ghost” guns or establishing a statewide paid family and medical leave program for millions of workers. Even when a republican governor vetoes a bill, the democratic legislature simply overrides it with little or no fanfare because it’s (ho-hum) business as usual.

Despite the frequent threats I hear to leave Maryland, I know it’s not easy to move. But if I were in the permanent political minority, I would surely make it a priority. In this regard you have to give former Maryland state senator Alex Mooney (R-Mars) credit because he took his political talents from Maryland to West Virginia and picked up right where he left off. Except now, he has more sympathetic ears and has gained higher office, even if it’s in West Virginia.

I might be pessimistic but when you project this state-by-state angst over the entire country, It seems quite possible to me the United States makes a clean, political break one day. It is doubtful there would be all out war—we’ve been down that woeful road before and it didn’t work out so well. But, a political, paperwork-laden solution decades from now? Sure. Just think something like Brexit.

Consider if breaking up would be so bad. California is, by itself, the world’s fifth largest economy. Texas, Florida, and New York could no doubt stand on their own. The remaining states would then band together in one or more conservative-leaning countries or progressive-leaning countries. This could be decided by state referendum but the lead time would be such that the political losers in each new country could find work and swap accommodations with the losers in the other if they wish, sort of like an enormous Airbnb program. Texas could build that wall and California could ban all those guns. We would all be able to move freely about these new countries just like the EU citizens do. We would all be members of NATO.

Politicians are fond of saying we have more in common than we have differences. My observation is we don’t. We have many more differences—certainly too many and too serious to remain in an unhappy marriage. It used to be that a foreign threat would bring us together. Think Cuban missile crisis or 9-11. No longer. All you have to do is watch some Fox News and you’ll see we can’t even agree on our opposition to Russia in their war with Ukraine.


Abortion?  As we are now seeing this issue alone has the potential to thwart the very idea of what it means to be American. Most of us want this procedure to be safe, rare and legal. We feel it is none of our business what women do with their own bodies. Others want it to be very much their business. They wish to preserve the fetus at all costs and make criminals out of doctors and desperate women.

Gun rights? Some of us know that more guns do not make us safer and would be happy if we had many less guns than people. Others insist more guns d0 make us safer and there can’t be too many. They should even be at our sides at all times. 

Voting rights? Most of us believe there is not a voter fraud problem in this country and wish to make voting as easy as possible. Others believe elections are stolen and voting laws must be tightened up precipitously.

I could go on and on.

If you know a little history, you know this: there is nothing sacred about being a “country.” The list of countries that have come and gone is telling. We only have to look at modern times to remember there used to be independent states like USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, East Pakistan, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They’ve been replaced by a potpourri of new or merged countries. English- and French-speaking Canada flirts with a split every decade or so. Even on our own sunny shores, Texas and Hawai’i, believe it or not, used to be independent countries. And let’s not forget America itself was not so long ago part of the British Empire.

When you look clear-eyed at this in an historical light, it seems more likely than not that America breaks up with itself one day. And, why not? Most people are either mad, anxious, or apoplectic at the other side. They simply can’t understand why those people think and live the way they do and are always stirring up trouble. The same angst and stress that plays out in red and blue states for the opposition party clearly plays out at the federal level every day. Do you really think it will get better? I don’t. Compromise and “country before party” is a quaint relic of another time. The political class has failed us.

I hope I’m wrong about breaking up. I can’t imagine needing a passport to visit my beloved Siesta Key, Florida, each year. Of course, I don’t think you could pay me to live there now with Ron DeSantis (R-Looney Tunes) gleefully banning books, criticizing mask-wearing students and picking on Mickey Mouse for saying “gay”. But if Florida were in a different country, I’m ashamed to say that I would probably hold my nose and overlook the human rights abuses taking place there in order to visit. After all, I did that when I visited China many years ago.

Intolerance Not Education

By Gary Bennett

This article appears in the April 12, 2022, issue of the Frederick News Post

Just when you think this kind of nonsense can’t happen here, a merry band of pirates take over a BOE health curriculum committee meeting and threaten violence if they don’t get their way.

It seems clear the lessons of Kindergarten and first grade on how to conduct yourselves are lost on them. How ironic. I would like to assure the committee volunteers who give their time, efforts and talent freely that this despicable group does not speak for a majority of Frederick County citizens. Most of us stand with the science and expert opinion when it comes to educating our children.

I don’t think there is any doubt that the group of four including Cindy Rose and Tiffany Noble running for the Board of Education on the so-called “Education Not Indoctrination” slate has sealed their election fate. Frederick County will not put up with this kind of conduct no matter how strongly held your beliefs are. These are not the kind of people we want in charge of anything. In fact, to add clarity to the upcoming election I propose this group be called for what they are—the Intolerance Not Education slate.

Unvaccinated are holding us hostage

By Gary Bennett

This article appeared in the Frederick News Post on January 13, 2022.

So, after all this time, only 68 percent of Frederick County residents are vaccinated against Covid. It seems to not matter that Fredrick Health Hospital has over 100 Covid patients, three-quarters of which are not vaccinated, and is under such intense strain that it instituted “crisis standards of care,” which removes optimal care to patients with serious but more chronic conditions. It seems to not matter that our doctors and nurses are pleading with us to do the right thing. It seems to not matter that with serious outbreaks in nine county schools we’re probably going to have to go back to virtual learning, thereby further harming our children and throwing a wrench into the vexing parental conundrum of working or staying home and caring for their children.

Why do the unvaccinated hold the rest of us hostage like this? The efficacy of the Covid vaccine cannot be disputed by any reasonable person. There are millions of us who have been vaccinated with few or no side effects and have avoided severe disease. What more proof do they need? It’s sad but I’ll admit it’s becoming increasingly difficult to feel bad for wantonly unvaccinated people who are now dying of Covid and are begging for the vaccine. I will also call out people who are not wearing masks in public spaces. We should all do that. It’s the patriotic thing to do. It may be uncomfortable but perhaps these people will think twice next time if there is some shame involved.

We should have conquered Covid by now and relegated it to being a still dangerous but mostly seasonal nuisance like the common flu. But the selfish, inconsiderate, and yes, under-educated portion of our citizenry—the very ones who complain the loudest about wearing a simple mask and who must contend with empty store shelves and closed eateries—have prolonged this crisis with their recalcitrance.

At this point, as the virus continues to mutate, it’s hard to see how we’ll ever put it in our rear-view mirror until, as in 1918, the virus simply runs out of viable hosts to infect. That could take years and mountains of sorrow because of our fellow selfish citizens. My elderly aunt is right. If these selfish, unpatriotic people were around in her day, we’d still have smallpox, polio and countless other communicable diseases.

Response to Reader on My Proposal to Reform Office of Sheriff

Editor’s Note: This article is in response to a Frederick News Post reader who took exception to my call to reform office of sheriff. His comments can be found here: https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/no-need-for-change-with-the-sheriffs-office/article_f075f972-8934-5e5d-9df7-db067336a9f1.html

By Gary Bennett

I told you the hue and cry from the current sheriff’s backers would be loud.

I would like to ensure Rick Godfrey and those of like mind that I have no partisan stake in my proposal to scrap the sheriff’s office as lead law enforcement agency in Frederick County in favor of a county police force. This may come as a shock but I can assure him that I would feel the same if Karl Bickel were sheriff right now. (I wonder if Mr. Godfrey’s position would change if progressive Bickel were to be elected sheriff in 2022?)

Mr. Godfrey worries about progressives ending such scourges as no bail arrests and looking the other way on public urination. (Public urination, really?)  But right now, any sheriff, conservative or progressive, can publicly denounce any law he or she disagrees with and pledge not to enforce it. This happens all over the country particularly with gun laws and there is very little anyone can do about it including the governors. We should all shudder at that.

Mr. Godfrey makes the classic mistake of assigning traits to all progressives that are held by those on the fringe. Most progressives do not believe all conservatives are racists or insurrectionists, so why can’t the same benefit of the doubt be given to the other side on crime? I’ve written in this paper before that we’d be better off if we tune out the fringes on both sides and I believe that.

It’s preposterous to think that the five largest Maryland counties have high crime rates because they have county police departments. Does anyone really think that if the sheriff’s office were in charge in these five counties that crime rates would be any different? The biggest driver of crime is population density and these counties have more than their share.

I am accused of being naive in asserting that a county police department would not get bogged down in day-to-day petty politics like a sheriff often does. I would like to ask this paper’s readers when is the last time you heard the Frederick City police chief take to the airwaves to rail about something an alderperson did or about the scourge of illegal immigration? Exactly, you haven’t. There is no reason to believe the same would not hold for a county police chief. What happens behind closed doors would obviously be another matter. 

Voters of Frederick County make their political wishes known when they vote for a county executive and county council. These leaders serve the people on a myriad of issues and should have their say on public safety, too. Unfortunately, the outdated county sheriff model removes that almost completely.

It may be only a matter of time before the political nature of our current law enforcement model gets us into deep trouble. Just ask ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona who has nearly bankrupted his county with lost lawsuits due to profiling of Latinx drivers during traffic stops. We’ve started down that road already.

Time to Reform County Office of Sheriff

By Gary Bennett

Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry would be appalled at that has happened to the office of sheriff.

This article appeared in the Frederick News Post, November 24, 2021

Ongoing political sniping in this newspaper between current sheriff Chuck Jenkins and previous and probable future candidate Karl Bickel should remind us all that it doesn’t have to be this way in Frederick County.

It is clear to me, and I hope to you, too, that Frederick County has outgrown the increasingly outdated policing model of county sheriff.

In Maryland, the office of sheriff is an elected one required by the state constitution. There are 23 counties and Baltimore City, and 24 politician/sheriffs serve each one.

And therein lies the problem. Do we really want elective politics playing a day-to-day role in professional law enforcement? That is what we have here in Frederick County and I submit it does not serve us well.

Sheriff Jenkins has made it clear he is not shy about pushing back forcefully at his critics at any time. It is chilling to listen to him rail against fellow politicians Karl Bickel and Kai Hagan, who are in fact Frederick County citizens he swore an oath to protect.

Karl Bickel seems to think that an honest discussion of the merits of a county police force is a red herring at this time. He sounds more like a politician who thinks he has a pretty good shot at becoming sheriff in 2022 but would have very little shot at winning a nationwide search for county police chief. He is probably very right about that.

As a constitutional officer, there are relatively few checks on the power of a sheriff. The popularly elected county executive and county council have no authority whatsoever over the sheriff. They do have some say in setting the sheriff’s overall budget but it is severely limited and can not be itemized to, for example, defund our county’s participation in ICE’s 287(g) program.

If he or she wishes, a sheriff can publicly denounce any law they disagree with and pledge not to enforce it. This is done all over the country particularly with gun laws, and there is very little anyone can do about it. This is an extraordinary amount of power to be placed in one person, and it must end.

While the Maryland constitution requires each county to have a sheriff, state statutes allow counties and municipalities to form local police departments. This is the path Frederick County needs to start down.

The five largest Maryland counties – Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince Georges – have all created professional county police departments that report directly to the county executive or county council, much like the Frederick city police chief reports to the mayor. They are the primary law enforcement agencies in these jurisdictions, charged with enforcing all laws and investigating all crimes. In these counties, the office of sheriff remains but is limited to enforcing orders of the court such as evictions, seizing property, serving subpoenas, summonses, and warrants and running the county jail.

Frederick County ranks right below these top five in population. We are not the sleepy backwater we used to be. We are a metropolitan county that demands good government. We are the largest, most diverse Maryland county without its own police force. We’ve seen fit to join other large Maryland counties in establishing a county executive and county council. A county police force is the next natural progression.

A professional Frederick County police force would have several benefits: 

  • Political sniping and grandstanding would no longer have an effect on day-to-day law enforcement policy.
  • We can be secure in the fact that law enforcement policy would be in tune with the overall political wishes of a majority of Frederick County citizens who vote for the county executive and county council who, in turn, campaign on their public safety stance and hire the county police chief.
  • With a likely nationwide search for the best possible candidate, the overall quality of the county’s chief law enforcement officer would surely increase.
  • Frederick County policing would be subject to better accountability and oversight. The chief of a county police department would serve at the pleasure of the country executive and county council with appropriate oversight especially in budgetary and big-picture matters such as 287(g).
  • Training and professionalism would increase. In Maryland counties with their own police force, money spent on training has more than doubled over what was spent by the respective sheriff’s office.

Creating a professional county police force won’t be cheap, of course. New officers will be needed along with new cars, equipment, and office space to name a few. Some of these items can reasonably be drawn from the existing sheriff’s office, but not all. Funding of the sheriff’s office must continue, too, albeit at a lower level. But Frederick County is in excellent financial shape and can afford to take this bold and necessary step.

A change such as I am proposing would take an extraordinary amount of political will and courage. The hue and cry from the incumbent sheriff and his backers and sheriff wannabes would be debilitating. But progressive Maryland can get it done.

This change in policing model could and should be timed to not adversely harm any incumbent, challenger, or upcoming election. The election for sheriff should and will go off as planned with other county office holders in 2022. After appropriate study, the legislative request to create a county police force and reform the office of sheriff in Frederick County could then go to the General Assembly in 2023 with a target date of enactment in 2026. Even for government, this timetable should be doable.

Progressives, like conservatives, want safe communities and the laws to be enforced. The difference comes in the policies to make this happen. Politics should not play an overt role in such an important endeavor.

Current Frederick County (MD) sheriff Chuck Jenkins (2021)

The Difference Between Democrats and GOP

By Gary Bennett


This article appeared in the October 9th, 2021, edition of the Frederick News-Post.

If you are not paying close attention and wonder what really is the difference between the two political parties, I offer this: Democrats want to govern, come to consensus, negotiate, and try to do something positive for the American people while the Republicans are more interested in the raw accumulation of power and have a continuing unhealthy interest in what goes on in our bedrooms.

Don’t think so? How then do we explain the fact, not opinion, that Democrats are on board with investigating what went wrong in Afghanistan while Republicans cannot even be bothered to want to investigate the attempted overthrow of our government on Jan. 6? How is it that Democrats voted to raise the debt limit seven times under Donald Trump, even though he ran up record deficits, while Republican refused to raise the debt limit under Joe Biden and risked government default?

These are just two examples and I could go on and on beginning with the brazen appointment by the Republicans of a ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice during the last election while a Barack Obama appointment was not even provided a hearing an entire year before the 2016 election. The power-hungry desperation of the Republican Party is maddingly there for all to see and I hope independents will remember that when they next go to the polls.

Where Does All This Selfishness Come From?

By Gary Bennett

Protesters against a COVID-19 mandate gesture as they are escorted out of the Clark County School Board meeting at the Clark County Government Center, in Las Vegas.


I’ve been thinking a lot about selfishness lately. It’s been in the news.

The refusal of many people to get the Covid vaccine or to even do the bare minimum and wear a mask to protect themselves, their children, and the rest of us has certainly brought this ugly trait forward.

But it’s always been there. Unfortunately. Maybe without such deadly consequences, but still there.

One only has to consider what we see every day: trash littering our highways, parking in fire lanes when perfectly good parking spaces are only yards away, playing music too loudly in public, taking a basketful of groceries through the express line, not using turn signals, cutting in line during merges, and billionaires going off to space but not paying their employees a living wage. I could go on.

Those of us who care about others and actively work to improve their lot look on in disgust at the depths others are willing to sink to satisfy their own needs. Under the guise of patriotically battling government tyranny, a certain segment of our population has proven they don’t give a blip about the rest of us. I’m not buying their crocodile grievances and faux patriotism. Actions speak louder than words. Recurring tantrums at school board meetings, on airplanes, and in convenience stores roar with selfishness. Don’t think so? When’s the last time you heard an anti-vaxxer or anti-masker talk about the legitimate concerns of others?

Where does all this selfishness come from?

It is tempting to write off all these selfish people as simply toddlers in adult clothing. Not so, say most scientists. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they don’t believe we are born inherently selfish. Selfishness appears to be mostly learned behavior, not instinctive. The implication is that our rational mind makes selfish decisions consciously. We see it working for some people, at least in the short term, and decide we want some of that.

Happily, the same learning process holds for altruism. Scientists have learned that kids display altruistic behaviors from a very young age. At first, children learn to care only for their needs with little empathy or consideration for others. We see this all the time. But gradually, children begin to learn that other people have emotions too and develop empathy. What’s more, other research suggests altruistic behavior may be the default option in our brains.

So, if selflessness is rooted in the brain, why do some people have such a hard time with it? The answer lies in emotional intelligence or lack thereof. Most psychologists agree that emotional intelligence exists on a spectrum, and some individuals are simply higher on it than others. One symptom of low emotional intelligence is the tendency to be self-absorbed, or exclusively concerned about what you’re thinking, feeling, needing and wanting, instead of the thoughts, feelings and needs of others.

After stumbling in the beginning, science quickly reached consensus that masks help. Even if the science wasn’t clear, wouldn’t common sense tell you that covering your face will provide some modicum of protection to both you and others from this airborne and highly contagious disease? If I were wavering, that would be enough to convince me. Even harrowing accounts of packed ICUs and exhausted doctors and nurses pleading with us to do the right thing fail to move some people. This infuriating ignorance is another form of selfishness.

Businesses are beginning to once again post signs that highly recommend masks. Some even require them. Even though this should be common sense in any small, enclosed space, I applaud their courage to make such a call anyway. But this doesn’t stop a sizable segment from thumbing their noses. “Don’t tread on my rights” and “government can’t tell me what to do” are the usual tired refrains ignoring the social compact that we each have a responsibility to look after one another.

The most jarring excuse, though, is the one that insists we must not hide our faces because we are made in God’s image. This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. The Jesus I know would be the first to put on a mask to help protect others and urge others to do the same.

When it comes to the vaccine, I let out a sad, knowing sigh when I read in the Frederick News-Post about many local schools recently receiving STEM grants. I believe one of the great dichotomies of today is why so many of us want our children to pursue careers in STEM but then ignore—or worse, disparage—them when they grow up and provide their expert opinion. Anyway, where did all these lay people get their medical and scientific knowledge to know better than scientists who’ve been studying infectious diseases for years? That smugness and unreasonableness is another form of selfishness. 

The typical responses used to discredit the vaccine is that it was rushed, there is not enough data available yet for me to commit to it, or (inexplicably) it doesn’t work.

The vaccine was not rushed. To its credit, the former administration put the vaccine on a very fast track because we needed it to be. What people don’t understand is that the infrastructure to get the vaccine out quickly was already in place. The world is bedeviled by infectious diseases every single year and science has become good at responding. AIDS, SARS, smallpox, polio and countless other communicable diseases have been highly eradicated or wiped off the face of the earth because of vaccines.

The efficacy of the Covid vaccine cannot be disputed by any reasonable person. There are millions of us who have been vaccinated with few or no side effects and have avoided severe disease. What more proof do you need? It’s sad but I’ll admit it’s becoming increasingly difficult to feel bad for wantonly unvaccinated people who are now dying of Covid and are begging for the vaccine.

We should have conquered Covid by now but the selfish, inconsiderate, and yes, under-educated portion of our citizenry—the very ones who complain the loudest about masks and vaccines—have prolonged this crisis with their recalcitrance. At this point, as the virus mutates, it’s hard to see how we’ll ever put it in our rear-view mirror until, as in 1918, the virus simply runs out of viable hosts to infect. That could take years and mountains of sorrow because of our fellow selfish citizens.