State Capital
Three years ago I toured the state capital. What I remembered most was the building was more impressive than the people. The structure looked grand and gave me a sense of ‘power.’ I attended part of the state legislative meeting. In the meeting some chairs were empty. A lot of representatives were eating, sleeping, or reading the newspapers. Only a few were debating topics on banning guns and education. They sounded like they were bickering and were using sarcastic comments on each other. During break time I went and talked to a Democratic Mmong state legislative representative. I noticed he was one of the representatives that were sleeping in the meeting. He looked weary and he told me everybody knew the outcome so there is not point of debating because the republican was in control so they will make a decision. He also mentioned being a minority in there, so no one will listen to him.
The people that were elected by us and representing us, but they seem to be in their own little world and not doing their duty. ‘Democracy’ did not apply in that meeting. People were not expressing what they truly feel and they felt their words had no effect that is why they were doing other things. This reminded me of the 2004 presidential election, where we all know either Kerry or Bush would win. I feel in United States our democracy is restricted and we have limited option. It is hard for the average citizen to be an active participant when our role models such our representatives are disillusion about politics.
Comments
Wow - interesting story. I think people often, understandably, feel that they, as individuals in society, cannot have an impact on what goes in government, but it's really disturbing to hear about how those who are actually in government feel the same way.
It also brings up a crucial question about multi-party representative democracy: what's the role of the dominant party? To take advantage of your position to ram through all the legislation you can or to create compromises that all parties can agree upon? A lot of commentators are concerned about the prevalance of the first option in contemporary politics: when party's rule like that, someday, when they're out of power, the other party will return the favor. You can see how this might cycle out of control and be quite harmful for the long-term prospects of democracy in a pluralistic society.
Posted by: Jon | September 14, 2006 11:05 AM
This does bring up a few issues that are very important. First, does your experience show proof that our system is flawed? Or, does your experience show that current aspects of our system are not as essential as they once were. Second, is it possible that the same democratic process that we all care about still happens, it just does not happen on the legislative floor? If this is an issue that you would consider pursuing for the rest of your entries, then come talk to me to get additional info on the behind the scenes aspects. Overall, the issue you bring up is one that potentially could be very damaging.
Posted by: Jeff | September 20, 2006 1:21 AM