Dear George...Isn't a Democracy--a Vote--supposed to be a Choice? However, upon reflection what the voter gets to choose works more like the gradual narrowing of a funnel...
When my daughter aged closer to turning three, exerting some independence now and then I developed a somewhat devious 'choice-method' to deal with her budding liberty. For breakfast and lunch meals, she could pick one of two choices. And each morning I set out two complete [weather appropriate] outfits for her to select. Technically, she got to choose - but her selection was narrow and limited and chosen for her. Like democracy - technically voters get to choose, but our selection is limited and chosen for us...
From a vast field of qualified people only a few people desire the level of public influence that comes with public office. And of those few people what is the motivation behind their desire? Politics essentially is supposed to be the governing of accepted policy - however, in our quest for a choice via democracy - in the course of centuries of human distortion our politics evolved from beliefs and principles to strategy and maneuvers.
It's not that those pesky principles got in the way as much as surrendering a few ethics here and a few values there offered an even faster shortcut to a higher level of influence - much sooner.
Like a prickly skin rash - contrived schemes passed from one tainted
person to another following the human species right out of the gate: "In the beginning..."
right from The Book if Genesis to present day. [And no it wasn't Eve! The female character was maligned by a male chain of command in charge
of the Old Testament - which has been yet another political exploit...]
Stay with me now - because the direction of my rambling IS linked to Politics In America. More to the point it's linked to the evolution of politics in America. Our present day political roots [actually classless rule on Planet Earth in many places] took hold after the French Revolution.
The British parliamentary system that leaders of America's original 13 colonies rejected in favor of a republic like France - was the House of Commons [elected] and the House of Lords [appointed]. It was also a two-party system with the liberal Whigs and the conservative Tories flinging the usual insults - that has since evolved to 10 federal parties for the UK and 5 for Canada.
*IF we used 'history' more effectively it could be like having future-hindsight... So, why don't we?
The Democratic Party founded in 1828 was dominant among white southerners with it's origins most associated in defense of slavery and so focused on domestic issues. The Republican Party was founded much later in 1854 by northern anti-slavery activists that became business-oriented, but it floundered as a secondary party until the election of Abraham Lincoln.
We have besides the Libertarian Party, four others as well, but due to Constitutional Amendments and the Electoral College reaching the 270 required Electoral votes needed to become president is a high bar. Which brings us right back to voter choices. We have basically two choices, but those choices are made for voters via party Primary Elections to which you must be registered as a member in one of the two major parties. If you are a registered Republican you can not [for some reason] vote in a Democratic Primary. If you are a registered Democrat you can not vote in a Republican Primary. If you're a registered Independent [as I am] you can not vote in either primary election.
There was a skillfully progressive book published in 1969 titled "The Peter Principle". The basic premise of the work by author Laurence J. Peter was--"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his [her] level of incompetence." In our quest for achievement, status, rank, etc. -- too many people work their way up the ladder-of-success until eventually too many people get promoted to a position for which they are not qualified.
And the weakness in modern day politics - afforded to people who seek public office - is that far too many candidates begin 'at' their level of incompetence from the starting block.
In nature evolution typically means an adaptation over time intended as an improvement. Like the changes over hundreds of years for example with the Arctic Fox. The fur coat of the fox is less dense and a grey-brown color in summer changing to white as a camouflage against the snow in winter - that sort of thing.
But with the human species - rarely satisfied with having enough - over hundreds of years having more than one individual needed - evolved. This form of evolution has nothing to do with adaptation toward improvement, only a quest toward personal advancement - pure and simple. Well maybe not pure - and personal advancement is usually anything, but simple...Especially if your ambitions for personal advancement take the form of assembling an army to invade an adjoining country or assembling investors for the hostile takeover of a company. The aftermath of forced-hostile events can complicate nearly everything that follows for years or decades or centuries.
History has an energy that 'wants' to be our teacher - but we're ignoring our coach.
We're ignoring history that has-not worked in the past in favor of falling back onto old habits - hoping to be lucky. Really, we're that stupid? Yes, actually ego blinds reason. History proves that too. Over and over and over similar decisions from the same motivation brings us around full circle then we're caught in a hole of our own making.
Once upon a time there were kings and queens, emperors and empresses, princes and princesses. There were lords and ladies, counts and countesses and all sorts of other grand sounding titles. From 1765 on metaphorically and literally the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker along with the farmer and thousands of other oppressed and exploited peasants - rebelled.
Systematically throughout Europe, royal families became an endangered species - some actually went extinct. But even that attempt at leveling life's playing field became undone. And once again the authenticity of The-Peter-Principle came into play with people who led various rebellions losing focus then becoming dazzled by their own image - like, Bonaparte, Lenin and Castro. [America's rare exception was George Washington.]
However, amazingly regardless of weak, corrupt and/or inept rebel leaders - the butcher, the baker. the candlestick maker, doctor, book keeper, teacher, inventor and farmer - thrived.
In America governing by royal decree was replaced by; government of the people, by the people, for the people...In the new republic of America there was no 'class-system' per say - on paper that is; "...all men are created equal..." However, not all men are treated equal. Women [who have always been 50% of the world's population] had no rights with other exclusions like the Irish and the Chinese - and - people from the continent of Africa.
With the enslavement of one human by another the progress of our collective souls was sent backwards - fast. Though slavery had been part of human history for thousands of years throughout Africa from Egypt to Mozambique, the country of Portugal led a parade of European counties that took the forced labor of captured cultures to a more atrocious level.
And when the land owners of our developing American colonies seized on the idea of using people like livestock, a divine line was crossed--except--by 2021 that ignorant mentality should have progressed well beyond our three previous centuries. However, it hasn't because that same ignorant mentality persists in the actions and minds of too many people who seek and hold public office...
People in politics for personal advancement, glorification and enrichment are easy to spot. They're not accountable, they blame someone or something else, they have accomplished little for others, there is no action in partnership with their speeches, they evade direct questions and they feel entitled. They come to believe typical rules and laws don't apply to them.
The 1980s singers Hall & Oats recorded a song with the lyrics; "...it's easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain..." Who - has been voted into office fitting that description! Well my fellow voters 'we' gotta stop doing that.
It's not a okay when we throw up our hands in philosophical tolerance of; "that's politics". Why have we given away such an important standard of our own principles? Ethics and morality in politics should be a given just as it is in every other aspect of our lives from relationships to business. Why isn't there severe consequences for bureaucrats and politicians who transgress by breaking public trust? Consequences like complete shunning--not the offer of a million dollar book deal followed by thousands of dollars more for national speaking tours.
When the vast majority of peasants in most countries couldn't read or write, were kept poor and dependent on a king or landlord or church then political and social control of the masses was easier. Culturally in America in the 21st Century peasants don't exist. After WWII America moved beyond the peasant class into an exploding Middle Class [lower-middle-upper] that shot up like a bullet.
Returning soldiers, went back to work as a civilian-army and they bought houses, cars, large appliances, went to college, invented and started new businesses. Over three decades in the 1950s, 60s and 70s there was a giant mass with millions of well educated, well informed and financially secure humans - who voted. Women weren't content with just the vote they wanted their vote to matter and the great grandchildren of former slaves weren't satisfied with paper promises either - they demanded a seat at the table - every table. Martin Luther King demanded desegregation and true voting rights and equal opportunity. Women's Liberation demanded equal rights and equal pay. And this vocal group of protestors were a block. Which brings us to the election year 1993 and a systematic dismantling of that influential-majority-Middle Class.
This massive Middle Class was a threat to an increasing number of calculating political Social-Climbers, from the ranks of regular folk. [Insecure people are dangerous people.] Ambitious politicians seeking personal advancement, glorification and enrichment knew exactly how to regain control. First, to conquer - divide - hence the media concentration of women and minority news designed to reduce one large block into fractured smaller blocks. Second, if an advanced and well functioning public education system had created the problem of a powerful Middle Class then diluting key parts of public school education could slowly reverse it. [The initial push toward removing cursive was part of that.]
Besides two straight decades in which Middle Class wages stagnated - vital components like diluted history in public school education, worked to produce three entire [school] generations of voters in their 20s, 30s and 40s - technologically advanced, but weak in critical thinking. [See: Education In America] Because of that, inept mayors and governors from specific states decided defunding their police budgets made sense. It's also how federal politicians [riding a personal enrichment-train for decades] were able to convince voters they could fix our social crisis - when it was they who created much of our social crisis...Gotta luv irony...
Regardless, voters aren't helpless and no political situation is hopeless. [See: Term Limits In America]
If the candidate you voted for didn't win - no matter - the person who did win still works for you. Email, write and/or call [over and over and over] to the public servant who represents your district - federal, civic, state or county and let them know - with facts and logic what you expect from them.
https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195
*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist.
Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com
Suspense Thriller: "24 Sussex Drive"
Suspense Thriller: "Woodrow & Wren" The Rule Of Three
