To the Editor:

There is an interesting similarity between Knox’s political climate and that of the 2016 presidential election. The ideological wedge between the presidential nominees has grown at the same time the discord between the town supervisor and board members has reached a fever pitch.

Will Knox become a miniature version of the slapstick gladiator contest of this year’s presidential election? I hope not. I worry that this trendy new approach to national politics — one that ranks gamesmanship over compromise, hostility over comradery — has injected itself into Knox politics too.

The issues we face as a town are not the same as those we face as a country. Conducting town business and planning the future just does not summon the sorts of essential, polarizing questions that this year’s presidential election does, like who we are as a people and whether America is still great or not. The hysteria and deceit that is so characteristic of presidential campaigns — financed by corporations in amounts surpassed only by the egos of the nominees — simply have no place in Knox.

Knox needs a smaller politics, one that respects different perspectives on those Big Questions, and mobilizes us around issues that are unique to us as Hilltowners.

The first time I met Dan Hanley, we talked about fences. I described my home to him and some pasture that I am trying to fence. Dan knew my house and even some of the challenges I face. He gave me helpful ideas and offered to connect me with an inexpensive source of fencing.

This is grassroots politics in action: town leaders who know the community and bring actionable solutions to day-to-day problems. Our conversation about fence would not register as a political one in the “government” sense of the word, but it was actually deeply so for me as a homesteader in Knox.

Let’s embrace this variety of politics and leave the bombast and bluster to the people on television.

I hope you will join me in supporting Dan Hanley on Nov. 8.

Travis O'Donnell

Knox

Editor's note: See related election profiles.