Archibald: Alabama politicians must go home and answer questions

This is an opinion column.

The American representative Tom Bevill returned to Jasper during the Reagan years.

It was his 10th term in the congress, and I only remember it because it was my first year of work. I was terribly not prepared to talk about politics or politics.

But I did not have to do it, because he did not talk about it. He explained how his voters in the northwest of Alabama had been neglected when the boom in interstate construction began decades before. He spoke of corridor X, the Birmingham connector in Memphis which, three decades later, would open as I-22.

I don’t remember much more about the conversation. When I left that day, I did not know what he thought of national divisions, or Reagan, nor Iran-Contra.

But I moved away from my stay in his district of two things: this guy cared to improve the life of his voters; And these voters knew it in their bones.

I haven’t thought of Bevill for a while. Maybe because I did not arrive by Bevill State or Bevill Lock and Dam or the Bevill industrial park or half a dozen centers or additional buildings appointed for him and the pork he brought home.

But Bevill’s daughter, Patty Bevill Warren, wrote today an essay for Al.com who not only reminded me of her father, but in comparison, shame our current political herd.

It’s worth it. It’s worth it.

She tells a story – relayed by a subordinate who would later become a well -known judge – of the way in which her father once delayed a call to the Secretary of Defense in order to speak with a very average voter named Ms. Brown.

“We are working for Ms. Brown,” Bevill told Jim Hughey at the time.

It is a striking truth. Or it was.

I have been gathering responses from the Congress Delegation and other politicians for months now, and there are few real conversations, apart from discussion points, defensive emails, conferences and canned political jargon.

Related: Patty Bevill Warren’s letter

While Alabama workers are concerned about the way in which social security cuts, NIH, NASA, VA and everything else will affect their lives and future. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville pose in publications on social networks with Elon Musk, the South African architect of the Cups of American life.

“I appreciated meeting @elonmusk and members of the Senate Doge Caucus to ensure that the dollars of hard -won taxpayers are used in a responsible and transparent manner,” said Britt while his own voters were trying to see through unanswered confusion.

At least, Britt’s office seems to respond to voters who beg her to think of voters, although the answers I read seem to have been written by an AI writing tool developed by CPAC. They offer condescending civic lessons of the fourth year written in a style which, according to the analysis of the school level Flesch-Kincaid, is often read in higher education in a state with a historically low literacy rate.

But hey, it is better that Tuberville, who responds, often by letter of form, to those who do not agree.

“Your comment has been sent to the appropriate staff member,” said a recent letter. “We appreciate your patience when we review your correspondence. If you help get help with business or a federal agency, we transmit your message to one of our state social workers. »»

Being better than Tuberville is not a high level. And it’s far from Mrs. Brown.

Alabama needs real answers. No panding photos, form letters and opaque claims on transparency.

Alabama is a largely republican state in a largely republican nation in a very republican moment. The Democrats are unhappy, the courts stacked, the culture wars have won and a billionaire born abroad has access to American data.

But it’s a scary moment for many people in Alabama. They are concerned about social security services, if not jobs, children, neighbors and businesses and restaurants that survive because other people get payroll checks.

They are concerned about careers in research, the economic health of their communities, the rise of white nationalism or the tenuous nature of democracy or the Second World War.

Alabama does not need political canoeing and more lip services on hot button problems. It is a state that receives more from the federal government than it pays in taxes, more in NIH grants than most states. It has a tax regime which already hurts those who have the least money disproportionately and will suffer more arbitrary cuts than most because its citizens are fighting more than most.

We don’t need politicians to snuggle up in power and avoid voters who have real questions.

We need them to get home to answer the difficult questions of real voters, in town halls or audiences that are not only partisan games.

We need them to treat ourselves all as if we were important. Like Ms. Brown.

John Archibald is a double winner of Pulitzer.