Troy Talks: Episode 22 • Should we even give a damn about the election?

It’s election year, and do we really care about covering the election? Nothing of substance to the forward movement, modernization, and cultural renaissance of Guam has been produced by elected officials the past few years.

Heck, we’re stuck on the remedial matters of crime, degenerating systems for medical and mental health, the continuous dumbing down of the generations, and the seemingly endless spiral into poverty.

We finally have an education superintendent ready and willing to take bold steps to address – at least – the issue of school campuses that should be shut down. Yet, in the same story about the move, the legislative education committee chairman – Chris Barnett – is worried Erik Swanson’s moves are too bold and aggressive.

When did Mr. Barnett become such a political pansy? Wasn’t it just a few months ago that he was a private sector citizen complaining about the same problems we all complain about? Demanding action?

Mr. Swanson’s approach should be applauded. This is exactly what government of Guam needs. Aggressive timelines. Aggressive action. Aggressive change. Aggression.

I’m so sick and tired of hearing the same bullshit from politicians about how change is needed. It’s always mentioned under a cloud of vagueness and puffed up generalities. ‘We need change in education!’ Boring. ‘I will change the way government does business!’ Sure. ‘We’re going to go after the criminals and do something about all these drugs coming in!’ Heard it before. My personal favorite: “I’m going to do what’s right for the people.” That one’s the smelliest of the heaps of carabao dung that get inaugurated into the Antonio Unpingco session hall every two years.

I’d rather vote for someone who looks me in the eye and tells me his solution to funding public schools would be to raise the property tax (to such and such percent) and dedicate those funds to the Department of Education. I wouldn’t like it, but it’s honest and cold, and it tells me that a candidate like that is more interested in doing what is necessary and right than bullshitting me for my vote.

I’d much prefer to vote for people who will promise to do things that might not be popular, but are transformative and aggressive. Will anyone running for senator promise to completely overhaul the Chamorro Land Trust Act into a land grant program for Guamanians, no matter what their race is? Translation: Get rid of the racism in that racist and complete failure of a land program.

Or how about a senatorial candidate who commits to restructuring the Guam Legislature into a 21-member body of legislators who get paid only $500 a month, have zero personal staff and offices, and instead share a professional, classified staff?

I’d love to vote for a mayoral candidate who will promise to put cameras in their offices that stream to YouTube or Facebook throughout the work day so we villagers can see who is working, what they’re working on, and whether our tax dollars are being spent wisely and legally.

It would be nice if a bunch of mayoral candidates got together and said, ‘Elect us, and we won’t waste your money like the other guys going to another stupid strawberry festival or a worthless junket to Japan and the Philippines where ZERO benefits accrue to the people of our villages.’

Or if even one of them had it in his or her platform to take money away from family-connected contractors and dedicate those funds to transporting children with disabilities to village sports practices and events, or the elderly to their doctors’ appointments.

For as much bitching as senators and the governor do about Guam Memorial Hospital, I’m wondering why none of them have introduced and considered legislation to privatize the management of GMH. Instead, we’re all stuck watching them lick the hairs of their buttholes between their months-long argument about where to build the stupid hospital. Ridiculous.

The math that goes into why the cost of homeownership and rent is so high isn’t very difficult. Our “leaders” have known for years that Section 8 housing assistance competes with military housing allowances and vice versa and that competition has raised rents to all-time highs. Why has not one single elected official pressed the military to change its housing allowance policy to allow their members with vouchers to receive refunds on the difference between the voucher and the rent cost? That will solve the problem almost overnight.

There are two transformative pieces of legislation, and both of them are languishing. The first is by Chris Duenas, and essentially it will allow a new septic system technology so that the northern part of the island gets opened up for housing development. That can drive down the cost of homes substantially. The other bill is by Therese Terlaje, and it seeks to reform the Medical Malpractice Mandatory Arbitration Act. Both bills have gone nowhere.

All I hear is talking from our leaders about how great the Chamorro language is and how much we need to save it. Wouldn’t it be something if one of them put our money where their mouths are? Like, what if one of them went through the budget, proposed cuts to agencies, positions, and programs we know we don’t need, and dedicated those funds to a $5,000 conditional grant to every public school teacher who agrees to learn the Chamorro language to fluency? The goal – in time – would be to teach their students in whatever subjects they teach in the Chamorro language.

And, man, would it be something if legislators legislated laws that would make unethical conduct among elected and appointed officials crimes that would cost them the same amount of prison time as petty thieves?

None of it is being done. Almost all of them are full of shit.

Which brings me back to my opening point: Why should we give a damn about covering this election when in all the other elections the voters have done the same thing? Elect the same idiots.

Money talks. All the time. This is the not-so-secret secret to our idiocy as voters. We’re the ones who keep doing this to ourselves.

I have a theory, though, that breathes some hope into the prospect that we could elect good leaders this coming election. I think off-year (non-gubernatorial) elections are better gauges of actual voter engagement and introspection about moral standards and priority of issues. Why? Because there aren’t governors running who dole out and promise jobs. There are only so many unethical promises senatorial, congressional, and mayoral candidates and incumbents can make.

Hence few people care to vote. And those who don’t normally vote in off-year elections are the ones who have nothing to gain from voting aside of course from the ideal reason soldiers risk and lose their lives on battlefields: the defense and proliferation of democracy and what is morally right. That leaves behind the rest of the voting population that cares enough to wake up on primary Election Day (August 3 this year), and spend a couple hours of their Saturday to vote at their precinct. Most of those voters actually care in a comprehensive way about their children and their future. The ones who aren’t promised jobs and contracts and who don’t generally care about the rest of the community stay home.

But, if I’m right, that’s really just half of the formula for caring Guamanians to pull off a victory this year. The other half is the quality of the candidates themselves. Will we have candidates who will make the bold promises of aggressive change and action? Will they wage effective campaigns to catch our attention with those meaningful platforms?

Or will we get the same idiots running things all the time?