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Originally Posted by proteanmix
But you have state tax, and if you live in a city then you may also have city tax. Those taxes affect the quality of local school districts. You have local roads that need to be maintained, local business (mom and pop vs. Walmart). The feds aren't going to get a grocery store in my neighborhood so I don't have to drive 20 miles to the nearest one. The feds aren't going to make sure my city or county has smoking bans or living wages, attend to local housing violations, nor do I call the FBI when my house is robbed. These things (and lots more) are all under the city, county, and state governments.
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Funny, I don't want the local government to do ANY of those things except for having a police force. No deciding where grocery stores should be, no smoking bans, no living/prevailing/minimum wage laws, no zoning laws. I don't want any level of government doing that stuff, frankly.
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Corruption in local governments seems like even more reason them to be heavily scrutinize. Corruption at the national level doesn't deter people from anything so why should it at the local level?
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Preaching to the choir here, but federal corruption is so removed from people's daily lives that they can ignore it. They don't ignore the war or the economy, though. And I think corruption and a lack of viable alternatives does deter some people at the federal level.
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By no means do I think local politics are more important that national, but people seem very ignorant of what's happening within a 50 mile radius of their home. And don't most of our national politicians start as local politicians? If they're corrupt when they're on the city council do you think they're going to suddenly have a change of heart when they're senator or vice president?
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No, not at all, and I never said that was true. It's just that local governments (especially in major Eastern cities or in small rural townships) get away with so much that it disgusts me. The best you can hope for is an enterprising TV investigative reporter, because major newspapers and cable news networks rarely go after small town corruption. Usually, they cover it when the mayor of Camden (for instance) finally gets arrested and gets on the affiliate's local news, not when the shady activity is actually happening.