What this entire episode shows is an almost comic lack of maturity on the part of the political culture of Port Angeles.  In most of the country, once the 1950s were over and flouridation had ceased being regarded as a communist plot, this issue had long since faded into its deserved obscurity.  In Port Angeles, in the 21st century yet, it became the issue that turned the city upside down.  Realistically, flouridation or the lack of it doesn't make a great deal of difference in people's daily lives.  The extended drama over the great flouride kerfuffle is, more than anything, a clarion call to the city to grow up.