After we cool down, and the dust settles from coast to coast, we go right back into our collective narcissistic consumerist trance. Forty hours a week, then lots of beer, some overindulgent shopping on credit cards, a little football and back to work. It is not our civic duty to just vote. It is our duty as a self-governed and free people to actually know what we’re talking about before we vote. The mere fact that so many myopic dolts around the country can be re-elected simply on name recognition is a major red flag, folks. We have shirked our responsibility for far too long. And the fact is that we as Americans can and do agree on certain fundamental issues. We usually agree on the common sense issues, such as: government waste, immigration control, simplifying the tax code, pork barrel spending, campaign finance, corporate lobbying, bureaucratic layering and democratizing the world by force, just to name a few.
Simply put, we need to judge the performance of our federal and state representation on the legislative outcomes and not on slogans, name recognition, and empty rhetoric from the campaign trail.
So what is the solution? At the risk of sounding like a cliché, I’d have to lean toward education. Some of the adult sheeple are just too far gone. Most people on the street couldn’t tell you the first thing about our constitution or our legislative processes, so it makes sense to start at the high school level. A self-governed nation should be keenly aware of how the government functions and performs. If we want to survive and thrive as a nation, we had better start paying attention between elections.
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
"Democratizing the world by force" is something most of us can agree on??!
Did you just throw that one in there to see if anyone was paying attention?
2 - Clavos
Um, I don't think he meant we agree on it in a pro sense, Doc, though it does kinda read that way...
3 - AH Dowden
You're right! It reads as if I am advocating democratizing the world by force! I will edit it to say NOT democratizing the world by force. Thanks...
4 - Dr Dreadful
It does read that way, and I'm glad that's not what was meant... considering how well that policy has worked out in Afghanistan and Iraq so far!
On getting the electorate more involved in the democratic process, well, it's a biggie. You seem to have reverted, in a way, to the paradigm of the early United States, where only a privileged elite was eligible to vote. By and large, the rest of the populace didn't much care about politics as long as the economy made them comfortable.
One positive trend, which in time may neutralize the superficiality-obsessed mainstream media, is that there is an engaged and growing political blogosphere of informed and interested people - like this site, for instance!
5 - Clavos
"One positive trend, which in time may neutralize the superficiality-obsessed mainstream media, is that there is an engaged and growing political blogosphere of informed and interested people - like this site, for instance!"
The political blogosphere is literally still in its nascent stages, and yet is already making noticeable waves in the real political world; witness for example, the recent DailyKos convention, which was attended by several pols, and the increasing frequency with which various bloggers are being quoted, not only by the MSM, but also by the pols themselves.
It will be very interesting to watch how politics will be transformed as the blogosphere develops and conyinues to grow in influence...
6 - Dr Dreadful
Although of course, Clav, there's as much drivel out there in cyberspace as there is good political commentary. We've seen some shining examples of the former even here on BC... if you know what I mean!
Hopefully a different side will win this particular battle for minds.
7 - Dan Miller
Bismark (along with many other luminaries), is reported to have said that we should not know how our sausages or our laws are made. Right or wrong, we don't. Perhaps that is why civics teachers don't dwell much on either topic, and the latter only very supeficially.
Dan