New Cities Needs Community Involvement to Work

People rarely accomplish anything by themselves. It takes a group of people working together toward a common goal in order to get things done. These principles also apply to interest groups. By itself, one small interest group cannot accomplish much. If it get others to support it, however, things become much easier. The goal of the West Liberty New Cities Initiative is to make West Liberty a better place. This can only be done by working with people outside New Cities. By taking public opinion, the media, fellow interest groups, political parties, and elections into account, we will be able to get the support it needs and come up with a plan of action.

Since the purpose of New Cities is to improve our community, we to know what our community needs and wants. This is where public opinion comes in. In order to find out what the public wants, however, a little research is required. Methods such as surveys, interviews, and polls can be used to gage the citizens’ opinions. We must keep a couple of things in mind, however, when considering public opinion. First of all, it would be impossible to make everyone happy, as people have clashing views on issues and the resources necessary to carry out some projects may be hard to come by. Compromises will be made. Second, and most importantly, there is no guarantee that the public will be cooperative. How, then, do we tip the odds in our favor?

The answer is simple: the media. By using the media, we can inform the citizens about our cause and persuade them to take part by conveying a positive image of New Cities. In order to accomplish this, we need to leave our mark in as many facets of the media as possible. In Morgan County, this includes radio, newspapers, and the Internet. As for radio, we can buy advertising slots on stations such as KICK 102.9 ,as well as send our representatives for interviews with the radio personalities of the most popular stations within eastern Kentucky. As for the newspapers, we can place ads and request articles to be written in papers such as The Licking Valley Courier or The Shopping News. As for the Internet, we can not only promote New Cities via this blog and our Facebook group, but also receive feedback from the community. People can post comments both on the blog and on Facebook, allowing us to directly communicate with the masses.

The ordinary people in our community are not the only ones we will be dealing with, though. There are other interest groups that will serve to either help or hinder our cause. Let us say that we want a Wal-Mart in West Liberty, for instance. A few interest groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, may support a Wal-Mart, citing benefits of low pricing and job creation. Groups like this would be willing to give money or land for the store. In contrast, groups such as local churches may be against a Wal-Mart, citing questionable business practices and impact on small businesses. They would take actions such as informing the public of their views and protesting. We must take the views of fellow interest groups into account before deciding on a final plan of action for any of our ideas, making compromises and perhaps even abandoning projects if the going gets tough.

There are two other groups that are more influential than any single interest group, however: the Republican and Democratic parties. People from these two major parties are who we elect as government officials and representatives. In turn, interest groups turn to (i.e. lobby) them when they want something done. The views of party the government official/representative belongs to, though, more often than not determine what ideas and projects will be supported by them. Since Morgan County has community leaders from both parties (ex. John Will Stacy is a Democrat, while Tim Conley is a Republican) we are not immune to partisan struggles.
Therefore, we must consider the views each party would most likely have on certain ideas. While some measures would undoubtedly be non-partisan (ex. funding for drug rehab programs), others would involve more conflict (ex. increasing taxes ). Again, cooperation and compromise are the key to working with people that have opposing views.

Finally, we must consider elections. It is no secret that everyone in office fears losing their office. As an interest group, we will have to take advantage of this fear in order to advance our agenda. After all, what better way for a politician to show their worthiness to remain in office by taking measures to help the community? Using this argument against incumbents will more than likely increase our chances of receiving funding from them as well as influencing their vote in a favorable way if the incumbent in question is a state representative or a Congressman. Also, although elections are still a long time away, once election time comes, we can support candidates who will further the goals of New Cities. Still, even when we get support from the right officials and representatives, we must be wary of sabotage by the opposition, especially in higher offices such as those for Congress.

In conclusion, New Cities cannot succeed alone. In order to come with a proper plan of action, we need people outside the our interest group. By taking public opinion, the media, other interest groups, political parties, and elections into account, we will receive the support we need, albeit with plenty of cooperation and compromise along the way.