Some thoughts on District Representation for Union County III: District Representation protects all of the Voices in Union County.

District Representation is one of the major issues before us in Union County. As we move towards a referendum on this issue, I would like to offer a series of thoughts as to how adopting District Representation will benefit Union County.

Much has been made of the way District 1 was drawn in the proposed Union County District map. Some have criticized it as a guaranteed Democratic district – one that would assure that Democrats will always have a seat on the currently all Republican County Commission. These critiques usually come from individuals who believe it is currently impossible for a Democrat to be elected in an at-large vote across all of Union County in a partisan race.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they say little about the districts that currently lean Republican.

Others have praised the way the district has been drawn because it will ensure that African-Americans will have someone who will represent their particular concerns on the County Commission. Others look at this with some suspicion, arguing that it smacks of racism via tokenism or slows racial integration by reinforcing differences rather than seeking to bring people together.

One of the core values of the United States is that the voice of the minority should be protected from the will of the majority. Our Founders were as concerned with the tyranny of the masses as they were with the tyranny of an autocrat or a group of plutocrats or oligarchs. Like it or not, we currently live under a system in Union County where the voice of the minority is not protected. All such systems, like the enforced one party systems of Fascist Europe and the Communist world, have failed because they became far more about the interests of those in power than the interests of the people whom they claimed to represent. Their halls of government became echo chambers, where a single viewpoint appeared to represent the will of many when, instead, it remained the view of a few magnified by repetition of those who were in power or who wished to be connected to those in power.

By moving to District Representation, we will ensure that not only will all groups have a voice in our local government and all ideas will have an opportunity to be heard. In doing so, the ideas and ideologies of all of the residents of Union County will have a place where they can cross-pollinate and produce better solutions to the problems we face – solutions that will take into account all of the needs of Union County rather than just the desires of one group.