To tell you the truth, I was aghast. I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it.
And then I started to worry. Really worry!
Look, I’ve lived in this town a long time. I started a family here; raised my kids here and sent them through college and out into the world. I’ve led a civic association here, plowed myself into neighborhood betterment and even helped to manage the town at one point. And I was fortunate to help elect good local candidates of both political parties.
But I realized that that’s ancient history when I recently found out that Cherry Hill has been under entrenched, uninterrupted one-party rule for 44 years, I was shocked. Has it really been that long? How the hell did this happen?
How did a vibrant, intelligent community like this wind up with a rubber-stamp government devoid of even a single inquiring voice, with no one to question, to probe, to offer new ideas?
The answer is less complicated than it seems. Power breeds power and entrenched power grows fat, content and permanent, especially when it’s fueled by a huge war chest tied to a political machine that takes no prisoners. That’s how unchallenged authority takes root. And that’s how dissent dies.
Sadly, most people are usually too busy to notice things like this. They’re busy working to earn a living, pay their taxes, put their kids through school and just get from day to day. And, in no time at all, without checks and balances, we turn around and discover that democracy’s dying right outside our door.
Don’t believe me?
Well, what do you think happens when an “out” party can’t even gain a toehold on the “ins”? The longer it goes on, the harder it is for democracy to survive and the fewer and fewer choices people will have, until eventually there’s only one choice — one way, one voice, one party, take it or leave it. Translation: No choice!
That’s what’s happens in Camden where the winner of the Democrat Party primary this year is effectively elected mayor. The general election in November is meaningless. Ditto Philadelphia where the incumbent district attorney’s recent victory in the Democrat primary virtually assures his re-election in November. One party rules. Period.
And take a look at Camden and Philadelphia.
Is that what we want for Cherry Hill? Is that where we’re headed? Is that what we have to look forward to?
Fortunately, we still have a choice in Cherry Hill. You don’t have to vote for the same Democrat cabal that’s been running things imperiously for nearly half a century.
That’s because there’s still a vital, active opposition party and they’re offering us a solid slate of candidates. All things considered, you’d have to deem them gallant, to say the least.
In fact, it’s sort of a small miracle that we still have a choice in this town. But if we don’t elect the challengers — Nicole Nance, David S. Lodge, Rosanna Parsons and Diane C. Carr —there might not be a choice next time around. That alone is reason enough to make a change, to bring fresh faces, fresh voices and new ways of looking at things to our governing body, Township Council.
Forty four years is long enough.
It’s time to restore democracy and Save Cherry Hill!
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