Riding a Bus, or Taking a Taxi

A redditor put this better than most: a taxi takes you door-to-door. A bus gets you close enough that you walk the rest of the way yourself. In politics, if you're holding out for the candidate who's a taxi, that being someone who lines up with you on everything, you might be standing at that curb a long time.

The analogy isn't perfect, and honestly it might work better if the United States did a better job with public transit. But no candidate is perfect either. Nobody on a ballot is going to match everything you believe, in the order you'd rank it. One name has to stand in for a large and varied group of people who don't fully agree with each other, and expecting a perfect match sets a bar nobody can clear.

Some of that mismatch is just math. Some of it is structural: a two-party system doesn't leave much room for more than two options. Ranked-choice voting is one of the few fixes on the table, and it keeps getting shut down. This spring, Ohio became the 19th state to ban it — a bill with sponsors from both parties — right as Cincinnati, Lakewood, and a handful of other towns were starting to consider it for local races. So a lot of the time we end up voting against someone rather than for someone, and that's a lousy feeling.

Still, sitting a race out because nobody clears the impossible bar doesn't leave things where they were, it can actually make this way worse. Your best-fit candidate loses a vote, and the other side's total stays exactly the same. Races get decided by whoever bothers to show up. Staying home or skipping a race on the ballot isn't a protest anyone in power actually registers; the candidate that mostly-works just gets a little weaker, and the absolutely-will-not-work candidate gets a little stronger.

If you want candidates who genuinely reflect what you believe, that work starts long before November — before the primaries, even. Finding people to run. Knocking doors and making calls while campaigns are still taking shape. Giving five bucks back when it decides who's viable, not later in the season when the ads are already booked. By the time the primary results are in, the ballots are effectively printed, the bus’s route is set. Complaining about the options won't change them; showing up earlier might.

None of this means swallowing your disagreements. It's fair to be furious when someone you'd otherwise happily vote for won't budge on something that matters to you, especially when that something is close to who you are. You don't need to defend that feeling, and I'd worry about anyone who didn't have it. But a valid feeling can still be poured into a useless outlet. Being angry at a candidate's position is one thing; running a public campaign against their candidacy, berating their social media team, vowing loudly to stay home or skip voting on that race, is another, and only one of those has any chance of moving them. 

Anger works where the candidate can actually feel it. At the town hall, on the record, asking the question they'd rather not answer. In a letter to their office that names the policy and says plainly what it would take to win your vote back. In organizing the people who agree with you, because politicians respond to blocs, not social media comments, tweets, etc. And if none of that moves them, in recruiting and backing a primary challenger next cycle. That's what primaries are for.

We're never handed a perfect option. Not this year, not any year. The bus won't stop at your door, but it gets you closer than standing at the curb, waiting for a taxi that isn't coming. P.S. The irony of using a transit metaphor here in Scioto County is not lost on me. We don't have a bus route to stand at a curb for, and the taxi mostly isn't coming either. For the record, here's how you actually get around without a car in this county:

• Access Scioto County (ASC) — our public transit, though it works nothing like a city bus. It's a shared-ride service you book like an appointment: call (740) 353-5626, ext. 203, at least 24 hours ahead (up to two weeks out). It runs Monday–Friday, 6 a.m.–6 p.m., anywhere in the county, with Saturday service in Portsmouth, New Boston, Wheelersburg, Rosemount, and West Portsmouth (740-353-5165). ASC's own rider guide reminds you it's "not a taxi" — a bus that comes to your door but only if you call a day ahead. Somewhere between the bus and the taxi, which feels about right for this whole blog post.

• Portsmouth Taxi — technically a taxi service, but they do not operate a large fleet of vehicles. Call (740) 355-2222.

• Uber and Lyft — technically they operate here. Whether a driver is actually nearby when you open the app is closer to a coin flip, especially outside Portsmouth city limits and especially at night. Plan accordingly.

• A friend with a vehicle — still the dominant transit system of Appalachian Ohio.

And if what you need a ride to is the polls: email us at sciotodems@gmail.com. We're not running a ride service ourselves, liability reasons if you can understand, but several neighbors have reached out offering to drive, and we're happy to match folks who need a lift with folks offering one. Consider it the neighborly version of the bus: it won't be door-to-door on your schedule, but it'll get you there. That's the whole point.