{"id":320,"date":"2012-09-12T23:48:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T06:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.reed.edu\/politika\/?p=320"},"modified":"2014-03-18T10:10:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T17:10:21","slug":"democracies-and-decision-making-fluoride-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/2012\/09\/12\/democracies-and-decision-making-fluoride-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracies and Decision Making: Fluoride Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bull Run Watershed, Courtesy of The Oregonian<\/p><\/div>\n

The Portland City Council voted to add fluoride to the Portland water system<\/a> today, thus ending the city’s dubious distinction as the largest municipality in the U.S. without fluoride in its water. \u00a0The debate has been heated–just peruse the comments section after stories in The Oregonian<\/a>. \u00a0I’m not interested in rehashing these issues here.<\/p>\n

What I am interested in is the claim that the Council’s actions are somehow anti-democratic.<\/a> \u00a0This is a common meme among crotchety local bloggers–Jack Bogdanski for example compares the Portland City Council to North Korea<\/a>. \u00a074% of readers who answered an online question said that “it is wrong to deny citizens a say in public health decisions.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

We can put aside the North Korea comparison as typical Bogdanski bluster. \u00a0There\u00a0are\u00a0numerous<\/span> democratic mechanisms by which citizens can express their opposition and even overturn this decision. \u00a0The Council held a public hearing at which 275 citizens spoke, not counting the innumerable letters and emails. \u00a0An petition is already circulating to overturn the decision. \u00a0And then there is that odd ritual called an election, when citizens go to the ballot box and choose their political leaders. \u00a0You don’t like this decision? \u00a0Vote the bums out! \u00a0In North Korea, they’d all have long been marched off to a concentration camp or shot.<\/p>\n

Ironically, most citizens reject the notion that politicians should blindly respond to public opinion polls. \u00a0“Leadership,” we often hear, is in short supply.<\/p>\n

Didn’t\u00a0Mayor Sam Adams\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Commissioner Randy Leonard<\/a>\u00a0provide leadership in pushing through what they thought was sound public policy, even if a vocal minority is opposed? \u00a0Isn’t that was governance is really all about?<\/p>\n

And now comes democracy. \u00a0The petitioners are circulating their petitions and a mayor and two commission seats are in contention. \u00a0Fluoride won’t hit the water for 18 months at least, long enough for opponents to prove their mettle at the ballot box and exercise their power as citizens.<\/p>\n

P.S. If there is one thing that was handled incredibly poorly, however, it’s the lack of notification of our wholesale water customers. \u00a0Randy Leonard’s leadership on this issue included a sad case of Portland arrogance<\/a> that will hurt regional cooperation. \u00a0Thumbing our nose at our neighbors is seldom a good idea. \u00a0Raising the middle finger at them is even worse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Portland City Council voted to add fluoride to the Portland water system today, thus ending the city’s dubious distinction as the largest municipality in the U.S. without fluoride in its water. \u00a0The debate has been heated–just peruse the comments … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty","category-paul-gronke","category-political-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/politika\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}