Dennis Taylor, a Republican candidate for Kansas Secretary of State, taught Western-style democracy skills to local leaders in several Eastern European countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Even though a lot of the people didnt care for communism, when you spend 40, 50, 60 years under a system, your natural tendency is to say, Now Im in charge, so I get to do what has been done to me in the past, Taylor said. We had to give them an appreciation of how you can benefit from listening to people and not just telling them what to do.
The experience taught him a greater appreciation for the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship. When it comes to voting, the rules should be clear. The results should be trusted.
Greater education and awareness for voters and more collaboration between civic groups and government leaders could improve voter turnout in Kansas from the current 48 percent to around 60 percent, Taylor estimates.
Its hard to tell people in Eastern Europe they should be voting when were not doing it ourselves, he said. If people are not really invested in voting, theyre not invested in governance and that has a long-term corrosive effect. If people feel theres nothing they can do, it ends up being a self-fulfilling spiral.
That has been happening more often across the world. Taylor has watched many of those Eastern European countries he worked with drift back toward authoritarianism. Hes been alarmed by the efforts by Russia to interfere with democracy and elections in numerous countries, including the United States.
Its really difficult as Americans, sitting here in the relatively safe Midwest, to appreciate how different life would be if you were born in Bucharest or Warsaw, he said.
TAYLOR grew up in Topeka, in a neighborhood peppered with political heavyweights including former governors Alf Landon and John Anderson. As a child, he read books about the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. Those people became his heroes.
The whole aspect of our responsibility as citizens to govern ourselves has always been an interest, he said.
From the age of 10, he wanted to become a lawyer. His classmates at Topeka West High School elected him Elections Commissioner.
After obtaining a second law degree in planning law, Taylor watched local officials struggle with issues related to sewers, planning and zoning. He sought an open seat on the Shawnee County Commission and became a member of the planning commission.
At age 29, he quickly learned the difficulty in making changes to government.
I have a joke I tell people. Theres only four things you need to know about government, local government in particular: Its always been done this way. Its never been done that way. It can only be done this way and it can never be done that way.
Eventually, Taylor was able to help lead several changes including an initiative to end an intangibles tax in Shawnee County; creation of a mental health center that brought together eight loosely connected organizations; and creation of a county corrections administrator to oversee the jail, community corrections department, a youth center and work release center.
He obtained a masters degree in public administration and also served as county auditor, Secretary of the Human Resources (now labor) Department, chief of staff to Kansas Senate President Bud Burke, and in private business. In addition to his time working with Eastern European countries, where he was stationed in Warsaw, Poland, he worked in strategic planning for private business that served numerous countries in Europe and Asia, including Indonesia, Bolivia and Afghanistan.
