Democracy is messy, in OP and everywhere

The Ocean Pines Association’s Strategic Planning Committee is overlooking one of the basic elements of the electoral process as its members wonder how to reduce the turmoil inherent in board of directors turnover.

Ranking this turnover and occasional election campaign nastiness as one of the association’s greatest weaknesses, committee members forget that democracy is an exceptionally messy business that can’t be “fixed” by anything other than making it less democratic.

As our divided national circumstance makes painfully evident, the problem with democratic elections is not the institution, it’s the participants,

The purpose of the process, after all, it not to produce a better government, or one that’s harmonious or effective, or one that doesn’t leave voters feeling anxious before and after the ballots have been counted.

The only reason for democratic elections is to provide for the creation of a governing body by majority vote within an established framework. Again, as the great national divide illustrates, whether that governing body is good or bad is subject to debate.

Although it can be argued that changing the length of directors’ terms might lead to more stability on the board, the committees’ board liaison, Dr. Collette Horn, observed that this would work both ways, and that a bad director serving longer wouldn’t improve anything.

She is also correct in the assertion that experience in association affairs does not guarantee a better director, just like experience in government is not a prerequisite for being elected to Congress or to the presidency, for that matter.

Providing Ocean Pines with a good, stable board of directors is the responsibility of the voters. They can either educate themselves about the candidates and the issues, or not. The results are up to them. To paraphrase a well-known political observation, the government you get is the government you deserve.