I seldom wade into the tall weeds of ARRL politics.

Other than a passing interest in Wayne Green’s perpetual whining about ARRL officials taking member funded junkets to exotic locations decades ago, I’ve never found boardroom minutia to be interesting. Most hams don’t. But as politics has become the number one American pastime, surpassing even baseball, it has also moved up a little on the long list of amateur radio things to do.

Ham radio is a hobby (it’s not a service!) and I try to keep my involvement pleasurable. It’s a low-stress way of filling my spare time as my life marches toward it’s inevitable conclusion. That’s why I don’t give the furry crack of a rat’s behind about ARRL politics, elections, or which Director was offended by another Director or even by a pack of them.

My opinion is that anyone who runs for any office is a politician and all politicians are bat crap crazy. I’m not kidding. Consider that at the national or local level of American politics are people who will tell you that government is the problem; that government is evil; that there should be less government; maybe even no government. Then these same politicians will spend billions of dollars to be elected so they can be in charge of something that many don’t even believe should exist.

Lust for power or insanity are the only plausible explanations.

The same is true of those who strive to become the political leaders of our hobby. The only difference is that these positions don’t come with a paycheck or a chance to get rich from it. The job is incredibly boring and significantly cuts into radio time.

In fact, the only time the job gets interesting enough for members to pay it any attention at all is when some controversy bursts into an ugly conflagration. To an outsider it can then seem an internecine war is in progress, but the most vocal critics are rarely ARRL members and hold no voting power. Their only voice comes from whatever magnification is afforded by social media. And while their 33 followers and a handful of like-minded hotheads on QRZ forums might be just as outraged, most of us are too busy enjoying radio to take notice.

I seldom wade into the tall weeds of ARRL politics.