The Politics of it All

My friend LMNtal Attraction wrote about an interesting issue today breaking with his all-too-relationship-centered blog world. I however have absolutely no qualms with getting into the nitty gritty of politics. Found an interesting definition that I think is the most perfect one I've ever found for the word politics (Of course I had to get past all of the other definitions that use the word politics in the description. Did everyone else forget that you can't use a word to describe itself?) So here it is: Politics- "The often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society." How much truer could that be? It is after all the art of governing, and deciding between what we want as individuals and what is best for us as a nation.

While my friend LMNtal argues that people are slack in their knowledge of world events, I have to give people a bit more credit. Governance IS an art and it's never perfect the first time. As the first modern democracy in the world, the US has come a long way from appointed governors and senators, landed elite voting, and the 3/5ths clause. Just looking into that a bit more, voting rights have been only universally established for about three quarters of a century. You could really argue even less than that with southern Jim Crow laws and such. So for the last 50 years people in our own country have been granted (-for lack of a better word) voting rights who never had any engagement with government before.

Unfortunately what ails the US is not the lack of awareness of government and world affairs, but the disconnectedness of individuals with government. As we sit in our computer chairs browsing news headlines on our own separate continent, it's hard to relate to the sheer terror that occurs daily in the rest of the world. My college roommate had a huge picture of children starving in the Sudan hanging over her bed. It disturbed me every time I went over to talk to her, but it's a jarring image that can only hint at what some people around the world live with every day. Moreover it's difficult to know what I can do about it. I've worked in a senator's office and let me tell you how ineffective writing your congressman/woman is. So that leaves the voting booth as the last bastion of effective public engagement with our government. I do have to admit that after the response in 2006 I still have hope that people come together and act when they realize how government affects our everyday lives. Democracy is not the ideal government, it's just the best we've been able to come up with yet.

In a similar vein, HOORAY to Charlie Crist, governor of FL, for reinstating voting rights to ex-felons. It may be an unpopular idea, but the right thing is rarely ever popular.

"Never doubt that a small group of dedicated individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead