Call to Action

     “Now comes the hard part--how do you convince your fellow Americans to move from weariness (there's no shortage of weariness) and move to action?”  This was one of the comments I received after writing my very first commentary, The Party is Over. Indeed, this will be the hard part. What will it take to get others, including people I don’t know, to get involved?  Millions of dollars have been spent in this same pursuit and it hasn't worked.  Educational programs have been introduced, even mandated and that has not worked. What possible thing could I have to offer that would incent another person to vote.  I still have difficulty finding the time needed in researching and making an intelligent voting decision.  Politics and its procedures are still very confusing and very frustrating to me. What am I supposed to do?

     My first thought in answering this is “Why?” Why don’t we vote, why don’t we care?  In my research I found Thomas Patterson, a Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Patterson published the book, The Vanishing Voter (Knopf, 2002). Derived from his book is a five part series called; Where have all the Voters Gone? This series is published on the History News Network (HNN) website. I highly encourage the reading of his following series:

Part 1, Where Have All the Voters Gone, highlights the issue of the two parties and how their diluting platforms have led confusion to the American voter and the lack of party support.

Part 2, Why Do So Many Americans Hate Politics, addresses the mudslinging that becomes so negative and vile that many Americans simply turn it off and tune it out.

Part 3, Why Is News So Negative These Days, Discusses the media’s role. The framing and agenda setting we learned of in our government class lectures.

Part 4, Why the Re-election of Incumbents Year After Year Is a Threat to Democracy, this one is a real eye opener and discusses the PAC money we recently learned of.

And part 5, Can Anything Be Done to Increase Voter Participation,  coincides with my commentary’s thesis and demonstrates a few actions that could help in increasing participation. But even these suggestions by Patterson require changes above and beyond that of the single individual and thus puts me right back at square one. Or does it? Is this the answer right before me.

     I may not be able to influence the hundreds or even thousands but, if I can convince one person or even two to get more involved and they in turn can get two others then the multiplying effect, although not overnight, will increase the involvement needed to make the significant changes needed. Sharing articles like the one above that I am sharing with you, is the first step in the right direction.  Getting involved in conversations about politics and leading those conversations away from the negatives of politics to the positives of changes we are able to accomplish will in time take effect.  Finding, joining and promoting an interest group with the same ideas, hopes and dreams of a better way for the American people will also help.  Writing a simple letter or series of letters to your representatives will let them know that you are out there and that you are watching them. These are all little things and simple things that have the ability to grow, to snowball into greater things.

               

     I can make a difference and so can you!

Not so Bemused on this One!

     I’m choosing the Bemused Citizen and his commentary A Desperate Cry for Reason. Well written and articulated, it is obvious that Jonathan is not bemused in his feeling for what is taking place at our Nation’s Capital and rightly so.  Jonathan makes a point on how these representatives get to Washington and become everything we did not vote them in office for.  How the corruption of their position consumes their integrity and our voice is sold out to the highest bidder.

     I appreciate and share his optimism with the knowledge that there are, indeed a few out there who will rise above the corruption. I agree that all that is needed is for the elected to listen to the voices of the individuals who seated them in their office and to remember from where they themselves once stood.

    What has happened to patriotism, to the American dream and to our Nations standing that all other countries once envied.  Jonathan is right, although tarnished, America can and will become great again and it will do so by American Patriots such as the Bemused Citizen.

     

     Thank you Jonathan for sharing your opinion.

The Party is Over

Once upon a time there was a National Government. It was a nice Government. It represented all the people of the Nation. It established guidelines for all the people to live together and to get along.  It watched over its people and guided them. It protected them from their enemies. It provided a means for all of them to be happy and to achieve every goal in their lives.  It……………….Yeah right buddy, whatever you’re smoking, pass it this way.

It is incredibly easy to find all kinds of things wrong with our National Government today.  I do not have to point out our current government shutdown, or the battle of Obamacare. The constant struggle between Republicans and Democrats.  No one is surprised anymore by the budget deficit and many of you now have firsthand experience at the lack of employment opportunities available in this “Land of Opportunity.” 

We can blame it on this President, the last President, the President before him; Congress, the Democrats, no it was the Republicans. This war, that war, this scenario or that damn younger generation. Which is the exact same thing they said when I was the “that younger generation.”  Who is at fault or what is the cause of our current situation does not matter anymore. What matters is that we are here and we really want to be there. So how do get there from here.  Damn good question.

We have learned in the last few months that there might be a problem with our electoral system. The voting machines may not be as secure as we thought.  Our representative may not have our best interest at heart and the virtue they claim to have probably would not be recognized by Aristotle or Plato.  We have learned that our representatives are in a slightly higher tax bracket than most of us they represent. Okay, a lot higher tax bracket but I’m still hoping for the winning lotto ticket and no, I will not be contributing to your campaign program.  The point here is that we have learned. We now know what many of us kind of knew, heard about, but did not fully understand or just ignored because it made no sense at all and we just were not interested. 

But now we do know and we cannot ignore what is right in front of us.  It is not their problem anymore, it’s ours.  We cannot turn a blind eye and say we do not understand or it really does not affect me.  It does! It affects the very reason why you are striving so hard to earn your degree.  Your future, your job, your home, your security, and the life style you desire, all depends on how your Nation is governed. 

The system is not going to change itself.  Those that are in power are not going to wake up tomorrow and say, “I have way too damn much money and I need to give it to Professor Seago’s class and let them run my office.”  I have a better chance of winning the lotto than that happening.  When I first started this blog, I posted the following quote from Abraham Lincoln:

 “This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

I am not inciting a revolution here, but the time to be weary is upon us. The part about exercising our constitutional right, we need to exercise that right and we need to exercise it to the fullest extent.  We need to wake up and realize that what we want for our tomorrow requires our action today.  It is up to us.