286
‘I love my little town’: A 21-year-old in Georgia is the youngest woman mayor in US history
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
286 points (96.7% liked)
politics
19120 readers
2374 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'd be mildly amused by this story but it's literally just nepotism
Yeah, it's pretty bad. It's literally "my dad, the former mayor, didn't run so I ran in his place." Personally, I would have a hard time voting for her, no matter how good her father was. Fuck political inheritance. That's damn near antithetical to the ideal of (the American vision of) democracy.
If there was no one running against her: People should get involved if they disagree
If there was someone running against her: She's the one who got elected
As far as I understand her father didn't just give her the position...
Family connections can go a long way. Sure, anyone can be elected, but knowing all the donors and having someone who understands the process puts you ahead of almost anyone else.
I have family that lives about 50 miles from this town. It's a drive through town with ~500 residents, the biggest businesses are Dollar General and Wendy's. I would be shocked if there were any substantial donors to her campaign
You're probably right, but regardless having someone to take you through the process is huge. If we assume democracy is supposed to be fair and free, shouldn't this be provided to everyone equally?
So it's more like she threw her hat in the ring to be HOA president, and either no one else ran, or her family name was enough to take it.
Still, Mayor's do have power to fuck things up if they want. Seems kind of crazy to let a 21 year old take the reigns.
I agree that having a 21 year old mayor is crazy, but I think you're misunderstanding the context here. There are no HOAs within 20 miles of this community. It's incredibly rural, with most houses "in town" being on plots of at least half an acre. Most of the residents live outside of that area and are on significantly larger plots of land. It seems like the community just really liked her dad and decided to stay with what they know, or at least the closest thing to that.
Sure but in the end it's the people who vote who have the last word
Not really, either she got elected or no one bothered to show up as an alternative.
I am sure you appreciated Bush 2 Electric Boogaloo, Hillary Clinton's disastrous run that only happened because she had insider clout from her husband to shut down the Sanders campaign, RFK Jr the "My daddy was a civil rights hero who was shot" candidate, and the constant calls for Michelle Obama and Chelsea Clinton to save us?
Being a close relative of someone who held a position should disqualify you from that position - there is far too much hereditary bullshit in American politics.
We're talking town elections here
Chicago famously had two mayor Daleys and they nearly destroyed the city with corruption. It's not healthy to have nepotism in a democracy - it causes far more problems than accidental good candidates it occasionally misses.
Not sure how you are defining nepotism here.
Her dad was mayor and she's inheriting it.
I might have missed it, the article says she was elected but also doesn't mention how many opponents there were running against her or what the vote share was.
Was there actually a vote?
That's not how that works. That's not how any of this works!