The end...for now

The Christmas cookies have been eaten and the champagne bottle has been emptied so that means it's time for me to end my blog. As I mentioned earlier, I have taken a job in the Capitol and I will not be blogging while I work there.

I had a good time doing this blog right up until the end. In fact, one of my favorite items was one of the most recent ones - the website of Supreme Court Candidate Annette Ziegler. I enjoyed that one so much because of all the fun it generated.

And what good is politics if you can't have a little fun with it? I of course wish more people would join in on the fun. Start a blog, volunteer, write a letter to your representatives or anything else you want to do, but join the conversation. Politicians are going to make decisions whether you get involved or not so you might as well get your two cents in.

It can often make a difference. The Wisconsin State Journal had an article over the weekend trying to encourage people to voice their opinions to elected officials by saying that it doesn't take very many letters to get an issue on the radar screen of elected officials. Sometimes it takes even less. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a politicians get a staff member going on an issue simply because someone mentioned it to them at the grocery store. Even Members of Congress do this.

The article did say one thing about politicians that is just not true. It said average citizens cannot get a meeting with elected officials as easily as lobbyists or special interest groups can get them. That is absolute garbage. Any constituent can get a meeting with their elected officials. Newspapers just love to feed the idea that politicians are three steps down from used car salesmen.

Some politicians do suck. But the majority of them, on both sides of the aisle, are really good people that work very hard.

And they will listen to you so speak up.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to read my blog this year and thanks to Wispolitics for giving me the chance to do it. I really had fun doing it and I suspect I'll be back.