The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Opinion
6 — Wednesday, August 10, 2022

BRANDON COWIT
Managing Editor

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St. 
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

VANESSA KIEFER
Editor in Chief

Pay attention to your local elections

E

very 
four 
years, 
we 
are 
hounded 
with 
constant 
reminders 
to 
vote in the upcoming presidential 
election. 
Phone 
calls, 
television 
advertisements, 
news 
segments, 
social media posts and more are 
indicators that we should head to 
the polls and cast our ballots for a 
specific candidate to take the highest 
office in the United States. We deem 
this measure, voting for a single 
government official at the top of our 
government, to be the most important 
impact we can have on democracy as 
voters, and I would agree that this is 
somewhat true. 
While 
electing 
federal 
representatives — such as your 
president, your senator and your 
district’s U.S. House representative — 
are key choices, the most important 
choice we can make at the ballot box 
is choosing our local representatives. 
For the past few weeks, the lawns 
in my neighborhood have become 
littered with signs advocating for 
certain candidates, and the sheer 
number of advertisements I have 
seen and voicemails I have heard 
sponsored by hopeful contenders 
make 
me 
feel 
flooded 
with 
information. Still, no matter how 
many commercials and informational 
flyers we are exposed to every day, 
we are never as rallied to vote in our 
local elections as we are in national 
ones. If we don’t focus on local 
politics with equivalent enthusiasm, 
we fail to fully engage with the issues 
that matter the most to us.
As opposed to the federal level, 
where there are typically longer 
waits between election cycles, local 
elections occur every year. Although 
they take place more often and there 
are more positions up for grabs, 
there is a certain level of confusion 
as to which roles in government are 
available at the local level and what 
exactly they do. In order to better 

immerse ourselves in politics, we 
must be able to clearly understand 
what we are voting for; a major reason 
why voter turnout is low is because 
of uncertainty about who and what 
we are voting for, along with unclear 
voting rules. We tend not to notice that 
the local level of government almost 
exactly resembles the structure of 
our federal government: each city 
and town has its own executive, 
legislative and judicial branch. Not 
only are their foundations similar, 
but their importance can be equated 
as well — local politics are just as 
important, if not more important, as 
the contests on the national stage.
The outcomes of local elections 
determine the fate of the issues that 
are most impactful in our everyday 
lives. The officials that we elect 
to our city councils and mayoral 
offices directly serve our community 
interests: matters such as schooling, 
housing and public safety are affected 
by the decisions made by our local 
representatives. Local elections are 
concerned with local issues, which, 
whether we acknowledge it or not, are 
policy choices that we interact with 
every single day. The decisions that 
our municipal and county officials 
make are essential in determining 
our quality of life as we interact with 
our neighborhoods. Often, the closer 
the representatives are to us, the 
more meaningful their policies are to 
our day-to-day lives.
Despite the essential nature of our 
local government, voters still tend to 
pay less attention to these elections 
as compared to those at the national 
level. We tend to view the presidency 
as the most important position in 
the U.S. government, but, in reality, 
our state and city officials are the 
ones assigned to protect and care for 
their community members in a more 
attentive fashion. Local politicians 
are responsible for the welfare of 
their localities and must pay attention 
to the needs and interests of a much 
smaller number of constituents. 
In taking our votes in our local 
races more seriously, we can make 

real change in our neighborhoods 
and 
elect 
officials 
whose 
sole 
responsibility is to act in accordance 
with our best interests.
Not only do the outcomes of 
local elections mean more for our 
livelihoods, but our votes tend to 
mean more as well. A recent upsurge 
of voter apathy is a result of the lack 
of faith in the democratic process, 
especially at the national level. 
Voters are becoming increasingly 
unsure if the casting of their ballot 
makes any real difference, but, when 
it comes to voting for a city council 
representative or district attorney, 
our voice at the polls is much more 
effective. With fewer voters involved, 
as compared to a presidential election, 
a single vote for a local politician has 
the potential to affect who gets a seat 
at the table. Not only do local politics 
impact us personally, we as voters 
have the power to alter the future of 
our communities when we cast our 
ballots.
With continuously high voter 
turnout rates, the voting population 
of Ann Arbor must actively focus 
their energy into local races. This 
election 
cycle, 
nine 
Washtenaw 
County commissioners, the mayor 
of Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor City 
Council members were up for 
election — all positions that will 
impact both University of Michigan 
students and permanent residents of 
the city. A ballot measure concerning 
public transportation funding was 
also approved in Tuesday’s election, 
a choice that will drastically impact 
the community and improve current 
transportation 
services. 
These 
choices weigh heavily on the county, 
the city and the University, and it is 
essential that those able to vote in 
these elections take the time and care 
to do so in future election cycles.
While political disinterest grows 
each day at the national level, we 
must avoid complete detachment by 
turning the conversation towards 
the importance of local issues. 

QUIN ZAPOLI
Editorial Page Editor

Republicans are out of touch with 
Americans on the most polarizing issues. 
History says that won’t matter this 
November

DEVON HESANO 
Opinion Columnist

The way our society socializes men is not 
only disappointing but heartbreaking

ANNA TRUPIANO
Opinion Columnist

F

rom the time they are 
young boys, men are 
taught not to talk about 
their feelings for fear of showing 
weakness. This mentality robs 
them of the opportunity to explore 
their feelings and ultimately causes 
them to push those feelings aside 
or reject them entirely. Those 
emotions tend to become bottled 
up rather than talked about and 
worked out in healthy ways.
Many statistics are available to 
demonstrate this learned emotional 
repression. For instance, only about 
one-third of people in therapy in 
the United States are men. In 2020, 
the suicide rate among men was 
nearly four times higher than that 
among women. Most alarmingly, 
98% of recorded mass shootings 
in the United States have been 
committed by men. Over 93% of 
federal inmates are men, compared 
to 6.8% being women.
The problem lies in our society’s 
association of masculinity with 

athleticism, 
power, 
money 
and 
sexual conquest. It is not far-fetched 
to think these associations could be 
related to historical gender roles, 
which still prevail today. Men 
were historically entitled to power 
while women were subordinates. 
This power dynamic has caused 
disturbing gender inequality impacts 
across the globe. These impacts 
range from female genital mutilation 
to removal from the home during 
menstruation 
and 
“honorable” 
murder as a way to rid families of the 
shame from a woman’s rape.
While we are less likely to 
experience those extreme examples 
of gender inequality in the United 
States, the flawed characteristics 
we associate with masculinity are 
constantly reinforced in pop culture, 
thus creating a breeding ground for 
hypermasculine values to flourish. 
For example, the language in hip-
hop music leans toward violence and 
sex, including derogatory remarks 
toward women and homophobic 
slurs.

T

his week, amid urges by 
Justice Clarence Thomas 
to look at overturning 
cases 
such 
as 
Obergefell 
v. 
Hodges, 
which 
legalized 
gay 
marriage nationwide, the House of 
Representatives voted on a bill that, 
among other provisions, would 
guarantee marriage equality for 
LGBTQ Americans. While the bill 
passed easily, the vote helped to 
once again illustrate a harsh reality: 
The Republican Party is completely 
out of touch with mainstream 
America on the majority of hot-
button issues.
Just 22% of House Republicans 
voted in favor, while all House 
Democrats supported the bill. 
The 22% number serves in stark 
contrast to American support 
at large. A record-high 71% of 
Americans 
support 
marriage 
equality, including 55% of those 
identifying as Republicans. That 
means the House GOP isn’t just 

out of step with America — it’s out 
of step with Republican voters. 
And while it’s too early to tell how 
many Senate Republicans will vote 
in favor of the bill, or if the bill will 
even have the 60 votes to pass, it’s 
virtually guaranteed that nowhere 
near 55% of Republican Senators 
will support the bill, let alone 71%.
But the Republican lack of 
awareness on marriage equality 
isn’t the exception — it’s the norm. 
Republicans have, over the past few 
months, consistently acted way out 
of the American mainstream on a 
variety of issues. Gun control, which 
once again became a major point 
of political focus, has long been an 
issue where the GOP is out of step — 
even multiple mass shootings didn’t 
change that. Attempts to include 
universal background checks, ban 
military-style assault weapons and 
raise the purchasing age to 21 all fell 
out or were never even considered 
for the recently passed gun control 
bill, due to Republican opposition.

Read more at michigandaily.com

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LINDSEY SPENCER 
Opinion Columnist

