The Big Joke When It Comes To Local Amarillo Politics

“...what an odd series of events.” - J. B. Hampton regarding Amarillo Politics, 2019

Tuesday, the Amarillo Tea Party hosted a candidate meet and greet ahead of this year’s May 4^th election. All of the candidates were expected to be there (except one who had a scheduling conflict).

It looked as if the plan had been for around 50. Excluding candidates, their families, and anyone associated with the campaign...there might have been 20 of us total who were there for a chance to hear those running for office.

A gentleman, who turned out later to be the new communications director for the city, told me he thought there would be more people. All I could say was, “Local politics, man.”

He brought up the online outrage over the trashcans and ballpark. I reassured my “plain-clothes-city-official” friend that most people don’t have the guts to act on the things they say online. It’s just a chance for people to moan and groan, with little to no personal consequence.

The only candidate to point out the obvious elephant in the room was Hayden Pedigo. Leave it to the youngest candidate to say what needs to be said. Not only were the youth not involved, but neither was anyone else.

One problem is that some of these events are promoted to a small group of like-minded individuals, and never pushed to the public as a whole. I apologize if I accidentally crashed some private party the Tea Party was having.

The other problem is that it's easier, and a lot more fun, to comment online instead of in-person. I can’t decide if social media has made cowards of us all, or if it’s just that we’re not being invited to the dance.

Between now and May 4^th, I’ll bring you all of the info I can dig up. That way at least you and I will have a chance to get involved, and if you really are that angry about your trashcan and the ballpark, you can get out and do something about it.