The Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 24 million people will lose healthcare insurance coverage under the newly-released radical Republican plan. More Americans will also pay a lot more, while the wealthiest will receive enormous tax cuts. If it passes, it will become reality through an administration that lost the popular vote. So, who do these elected officials represent?

Meanwhile, in Augusta, Governor LePage’s budget proposal would not only reverse the results of the citizen’s ballot initiative to fund our public schools, he does so by ending the income tax, awarding the wealthiest Mainers huge tax cuts, and placing a heavier burden on our already stressed local property owners. Our state’s Republican representatives largely back his efforts to take from the working people, and give to the wealthiest. Who are they representing?

Here in Brunswick, the Town’s own staff and Committees strongly recommend keeping a rare, coastal, town-owned parcel on Mere Point to let the public reach our public waters. Despite a majority of those commenting, and over 1,100 signatures asking for an opportunity to at least let the people vote, the Council refuses to pause in its path to close down the mere possibility of public access in an elite enclave.

Who do our elected officials represent? And, how do we fight back?

At the federal level, it’s impossible to overstate the damage being done with all three branches of government in extreme, radical Republican hands. Our system, brilliantly devised to provide balance, now tilts so far to the right that basic responsibilities of government are being swept away.

Citizens who want to restore balance and move away from an agenda that only serves the wealthy few must focus today on keeping up the pressure on Congress. But restoring moderation to our federal government will take longer, and require voting out unrepresentative representatives. More than protests and petitions, winning means raising a lot of money – still the mother’s milk of politics until limits can be adopted – and an end to the leftwing infighting that characterized the 2016 election.

At the state level, where two of three branches rest in Republican hands, Maine’s House of Representatives provides a bulwark against the constant onslaught of radical Republican efforts to leave no public responsibility unscathed. In the more-than-capable hands of House Speaker Sara Gideon of Freeport, the House can mitigate the damage, but it’s still two against one. We’ll need time to recover from two terms of LePage and restore some of Maine’s famous moderation going forward. Again, winning elections, requiring money and cooperation, is the only way to succeed.

Brunswick presents unique challenges. While many of our local representatives skew left on federal and state issues, local politics are often about personal connections more than anything else. It’s hard to imagine that some of that influence is not at play in the Council’s stubborn refusal to consider the clear public preference to have its say about the Mere Point property. This issue achieved so much notoriety that citizens finally filed suit this month, asking the Court to intervene, and seeking the needed funds through a crowd sourcing campaign.

The Council, on which my husband Steve Walker serves, should at least wait to hear from the Court prior to selling the parcel at issue. Legal maneuvering could result in a sale of the property prior to the Court’s decision, but only if the Council continues to ignore the public in order to benefit a handful of coastal property owners, many of whom do not reside in Brunswick year-round.

Council races have been frequently uncontested over the past several years. My husband ran unopposed last year along with the other two Councilors up for reelection. While I’d like to believe that this is due to his excellent representation, I’m pretty sure that this also speaks to the apathy or obliviousness of the Brunswick voter.

While I served on the Council, we shifted our election system such that every year, one-third of the seats on the Council and School Board are elected to a three year term. This was to provide some continuity from year to year, but the net result seems to be that those three year terms are just longer enough to prevent some folks from stepping up.

If we learned anything in November, it should be this: voter engagement matters, at every level, to secure choices that reflect the will of the people. To restore balance, and make sure that citizen voices matter, the road ahead needs to be populated with citizen activists, walking together, calling for change, holding our elected officials accountable, and running for office.

Jackie Sartoris is a former Brunswick Town Councilor