American Democracy
I was thinking of American Democracy the other night and I thought I would share some of my thoughts.
As we work on our issues, we often are working on them from a far leftist perspective. So far left, that no matter what legislation is passed it will not be close to what we would like to ideally see (in most cases). I do not see this as a frustrating reality. I see this as reflective of the greater society in which we live. Granted, I grew up in this quirky midwest liberal environment - an integrated neighborhood! a progressive public school! a UU church! - all great things, but definately not reflective of the broader American community. Congress on the other hand is, as it was designed, reflective of the broader US community.
For this reason our national congress is trying to reconcile the super-hip social justice New York activist voter with the Montana rural llama farmer voter. No wonder they take forever to get stuff done and then only do it halfway.
This realization has been heightened by the awareness, and the buzz in the air, about the incoming congress. The 110th congress, the first Democratic controlled congress since 1994, has many folks hoping for major changes, but many other folks are expecting more of the same. Personally, I am just excited to further understand how the political system works, seeing what happens when a different party sets the agenda.
January 4th the new Congress will be sworn-in and then the fun will begin.
As we work on our issues, we often are working on them from a far leftist perspective. So far left, that no matter what legislation is passed it will not be close to what we would like to ideally see (in most cases). I do not see this as a frustrating reality. I see this as reflective of the greater society in which we live. Granted, I grew up in this quirky midwest liberal environment - an integrated neighborhood! a progressive public school! a UU church! - all great things, but definately not reflective of the broader American community. Congress on the other hand is, as it was designed, reflective of the broader US community.
For this reason our national congress is trying to reconcile the super-hip social justice New York activist voter with the Montana rural llama farmer voter. No wonder they take forever to get stuff done and then only do it halfway.
This realization has been heightened by the awareness, and the buzz in the air, about the incoming congress. The 110th congress, the first Democratic controlled congress since 1994, has many folks hoping for major changes, but many other folks are expecting more of the same. Personally, I am just excited to further understand how the political system works, seeing what happens when a different party sets the agenda.
January 4th the new Congress will be sworn-in and then the fun will begin.
American Democracy
posted by Adam G. Gerhardstein at 3:44 PM
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