Tone down local political rhetoric

We expect vitriolic politics in Washington and Columbus. But those places are around 416 miles and 114 miles away, respectively. It's a little different when it's politicians in your own hometown spitting that kind of venom. We've seen it happen a few times recently in our area (an unfortunate sign of the times?), including earlier this week. Bad blood between a Huron County commissioner and members of the Norwalk Schools administration got pretty ugly ("Land deal a done deal," Wednesday, July 30 Norwalk Reflector). The commissioner, during a public meeting, called the school administrators liars and bullies, and accused them of spreading rumors around the community about him. The administrators, for their part, denied those claims. Regardless of the truth of the matter, it's a bad look for all involved. Sure, politics is politics. People with different agendas, or even sometimes people with the same agenda, are not going to agree on how things should be done. A number of local political offices are nonpartisan — meaning you will not see an "R" or "D" listed next to a candidate's name on the ballot. This is a reflection of what should be, in our view, a political model eschewing the kind of one-upsmanship and petty politicking we've become so accustomed to in our country. That seems an admirable intent, and whichever legislator in long-ago Ohio history set forth that model clearly understood something that seems clear to us — local governance should be different. It should be a place where people, some of whom could be neighbors, can come together, tackle issues affecting the community in which they all live and develop compromises for the benefit of all. Is that a naïve take? Maybe, but it seems a great thing to aspire to, and we hope all local-level politicians in our area would agree that the best way to serve their communities is by working together rather than against one another.