As Americans who value democracy, we frequently want to be able to directly sit down with our representatives and voice our opinions and be able to have civil discussion on the actions we should take to better our communities and country as a whole. Recently, I got to attend a local city council meeting in my hometown of Solon, Ohio where our local representatives and politically active citizens met to discuss issues in our city. 

Political participation is the key attribute of a healthy and functioning democracy and it was very refreshing to see passionate citizens be able to voice their concerns and their representatives to be able to provide transparency and insight into their thought processes. 

Solon, Ohio is a diverse community where many different groups of people have a strong voice in what occurs. At this meeting, our Mayor Edward Kraus, city council members, and a collective of interested citizens were in attendance. 

The key developments in Solon since Mayor Kraus took over in 2017 have involved a lot of construction projects to improve our roads. In 2018, our largest intersection at Aurora Rd and SOM Center Rd was expanded from 2 lanes on each side of the road into 3 to 4 lanes which has made traffic so much smoother.

Now, road and traffic improvements have moved east along Aurora Road to its intersection with Liberty Road which also brings in moderate traffic. Unlike the previous projects however, this project has been ongoing for well over a year at this point and still feels far away from being complete. This has frustrated many members of our community. 

Those most concerned with the completion of the project are those who live on the roads involved or can only access the streets they live on by accessing those roads. One community member expressed his frustration with the rough roads that he has to drive on everyday to get to and from work that is taking a toll on his car. Other community members who live away from this construction but frequently drive on it to access stores like Target for basic goods, also expressed similar sentiments. 

As community members vented their grievances with the prolonged project, Mayor Kraus and the city council members actively listened and were extremely respectful. This was a nice change of pace from traditional political interactions I’ve been a part of. The community members were certainly passionate about resolving this issue as soon as they could, but they could express themselves in respectful ways that could lead to meaningful conversations and ultimately progress. 

This is an aspect in American politics that has seemed to be lost as we move to state governments and all the way up to the federal government. These issues that ignite passion in citizens have become so divisive. As polarization has grown, so has rhetoric that villainizes opposition. This is the largest barrier to these civil, respectful, and productive conversations between representatives and their constituents occur at the grander scale than the local levels of government. 

The other aspect of local politics that was apparent to me from attending this meeting was how our mayor and city council members didn’t feel far apart or different from me or the other community members. They are members of our community as well who have more direct stakes in all of the decisions they make. 

The stark contrast to federal politics here is that the president and lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate aren’t always personally affected by the laws they are creating. This is where the political system becomes more of a game where politicians are looking to “score points” versus always doing the right thing. 

In order to win local political elections, politicians don’t need to fundraise millions of dollars, run smearing ad campaigns, and hold rallies for their supporters. Their voter base is so much smaller that they usually already know and frequently interact with their potential voters. In turn, I would assume this encourages political participation because members of the community see their representatives and interact with them, which reinforces to them that their voice really does matter. 

In state and federal politics, you see populist rhetoric attempting to make promises of this level of connection between elected officials and constituents. Claims from populists about how the current representatives don’t listen to you or really care about you have some levels of truth to them. Most of this truth isn’t at the fault of the representatives themselves, but it becomes so difficult to have those important connections with your constituents when there are a lot of people to tend to and representatives aren’t directly affected by the policies they are in charge of.

This allows populist candidates to emerge and attempt to promise that level of transparency and care for their constituents. In an ideal world, most people would want to vote for the candidates who will truly work for them. However, this is the danger of populists as they are in no better position to actually respond to their constituents than the representatives they are running against. 

I’m not sure of the best ways to make state and federal officials more in-touch with their constituents like we can see at the local level. Despite this, I believe being apart of local politics by getting to sit in on a city council meeting allowed me to have a better understanding on what true democracy should look and feel like. A true democracy is one where representatives can listen to those who they represent and look out for them as though they are their neighbors.