A couple of Tuesdays ago, a few dozen people gathered in front of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Monroe to protest the imminent passage of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill,” calling it out as callous and wasteful.
Indivisible, the political activism group that has staged several such events in our area, criticized the bill for cutting aid to vulnerable citizens while lining the pockets of the richest Americans with tax cuts paid for (but not really) by taking benefits away from the poorest.
They staged it here in Monroe, right in the direct line of sight of the offices of our local congressman, Mike Collins.
As has been the case every other time, Collins was not here. He is never here. Outside of the occasional campaign stop during election years, Collins essentially doesn’t come to Walton County at all.
He hardly needs to, after all. Collins is a seasoned politico at this point and knows he’s most needed, for his electoral benefit, in areas where his support needs shoring up.
In Walton County, where everyone and their grandmother will vote Republican until Doomsday, there’s no shoring up needed.
(Seriously, if we want politicians to pay attention to us, we need to play hard to get every so often. When it comes to GOP support, our county is far too easy.)
The protestors put up a big banner that read “Mike Collins Does Not Care.”
And if they mean, does he care about the protests of his liberal constituents who he probably considers traitorous commies, then they’re probably right.
But Mike Collins does care, I’m sure.
He just only cares about roughly half of his actual constituents. (Three-fourths here in Walton County, but we’ve established we’re not forcing him to work for anything around here.)
Collins cares about securing the policy wins for the red voters in his district. He likely consigns the blue voters to the dustbin and never thinks twice about trying to find any common ground with them.
Collins is a sign of our diseased republic, where polarization turns dissent into silence. We reward the winners, ignore the losers and hope the next election doesn’t turn the tables.
But if it does, well, then maybe Mike’ll care.
Stephen Milligan is the news editor of The Walton Tribune. Email comments to stephen.milligan@waltontribune.com.
