Politicians kick hornets’ nest just to create buzz

It’s one thing to kick the hornets’ nest.

It’s another to intentionally seek out a hornets’ nest and then kick it, just to create buzz around your name.

And that’s what Delegate Patrick Martin (R-Lewis) did earlier this month when he released a statement regarding a letter he wrote to WVU President Gordon Gee about the planned removal of the Ten Commandments monument from Jackson’s Mill.

For the record, there is no plan to remove the monument. There never was.

Martin’s actions are indicative of a political culture where politicians are desperate to get their names circulating — especially in an election year.

Martin claims his constituents told him about the purported removal plans, and, as a sitting West Virginia delegate, he felt the need to jump into action.

It’s worrisome that a sitting delegate took direct action based on a rumor instead of investigating the claim. This is not to say Martin should not have taken his constituents’ concerns seriously. But instead of writing a letter to Gee and then sending a press release about it to every news organization in the state, Martin should have picked up the phone and called either Jackson’s Mill itself or the WVU Extension Service, which runs the mill. A 10-minute-or-less phone call would have given him the information he needed that the claims were false. He then could have reached out to the concerned citizens and reassured them the monument was staying.

We’d like to think our representatives at any level of government would have the critical thinking skills to not take every rumor at face value. We’d like to hope they have enough common sense to do at least basic research on an issue before releasing public statements.

It’s alarming that a sitting delegate would take advantage of a controversial issue just to get his name out there. Martin wanted voters to know that he is anti-statue removal, so he used the Jackson’s Mill monument rumor to push his agenda, hoping he’d get a pat on the back from like-minded politicians and voters.

Governing and legislating is complex and nuanced. Actions have reactions; decisions have consequences. We want to know our representatives can be trusted to do the legwork to make informed decisions for our state.

Martin is just an example. As we inch closer to the general election, politicians of all stripes will do whatever they can to get their names out there. They will take advantage of the mayhem that has been 2020 thus far, and they will loudly take stances on hot-topic issues to rally voters. So before you throw your support behind a candidate just because they say the right buzz words, do some investigating of your own. What is their platform? What is their voting history, if they’ve already served in office? Will they put in the time and effort to make informed decisions with our best interest in mind?

Politicians have become too dependent on name recognition to win elections. It’s time we made them work for our votes.