We've gone to sleep at the wheel
Get involved in local politics. Now.
Most of us seem to become more interested in politics as we get older. It feels like a perfectly natural progression. Once you have something, you want to protect it. As a younger person, I truly didn’t understand the political process.
More significantly, I didn’t understand how important it was. Whatever was happening in Washington seemed desperately remote from my life, impossible to do anything about, and I had my own goddamn problems. What I didn’t grasp, which school didn’t teach me, [perhaps, deliberately] is that a certain percentage of my problems were because people failed to be engaged in the political process.
By political process, I mean, engaging with other humans to determine which laws will best serve the group. A group might be a nation. But that’s usually too big to think about. Even a state is large. A town, or even a volunteer group is easier. This is also where one can 1) make a real difference 2) learn how to engage in the process where the stakes are lower. Local politics is a training ground.
I had no concept of local government whatsoever. Sure, we had civics classes in school, but all that did was define terminologies, and the way it was framed was possibly the most boring thing I’ve ever heard. The class was something to get through and get out of. There is no way that anyone would want to engage in local government after taking that class.
Perhaps deliberately.
Most people aren’t interested in local politics, and the news covers national polyticks with the same breathless excitement [and incitement] they use for disasters. It’s hard to look away from something so emotionally demanding. Which makes it a trap. The news and social media engage our limbic systems in various ways. People who run these platforms want us to come back and engage some more so they can show us advertising. It’s also a trap because we, personally, can have very little effect on national politics. While it’s nice when our chosen candidate wins, it’s horrible and crushing when they don’t. That leaves people in the ‘I don’t pay much attention to politics’ zone.
That’s bad.
It means that no matter who wins, the process can become corrupted.
It means that people who want power and influence get it.
It means that people who like power and influence can quietly change the system to make sure they keep benefiting from it.
We. Are. There.
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People are polarized, and not just in the US. Many European countries are on the verge of civil war. In the US, politicians [including from my state] are calling for violence, and the people who once insisted there is no election fraud are now saying there’s election fraud.
That’s real. The reality is, our election systems are badly corrupt. In an audit of 21 states for the 2022 election, the organization United Sovereign Americans [Not to be confused with the sovereign Americans movement] found a 13% error rate and 2 million more votes counted than voters who voted. Read that again. Every state had an official - or officials - who certified those elections.
That’s criminal. Literally.
And that’s just 21 states.
This happened because none of us were paying attention. [Me included!] I’ve been trying to understand why.
We evolved in tribes. In tribes, a leader is usually chosen. But tribes are small. A potential leader is likely someone known from childhood. We could know their character and if they were the best fit for our particular situation. As communities got bigger, that stopped being possible. The person who could convince a majority to support them might become a chief or a warlord. Eventually we had big enough populations to have kings. If we were lucky, the king looked out for those furthest from his position. If not, we got tyranny.
The idea that we could govern ourselves popped up in Athens in the form of limited representative government, and in Israel in the pre-kings period. [Know of another example? Drop it in the comments.] But mostly, we were ruled by people who could amass power and influence. Then came the Enlightenment and the idea that we could - and should - govern ourselves.
The US is a unique place. We’re the only country specifically founded on the ideas of the Enlightenment. We don’t have kings, we don’t care about class. This was to be a place where only merit mattered. That system that made us the wealthiest country on earth and we shared that with the world. Americans are currently the most generous people in the world based on GDP. We’re less generous with our time. Perhaps because there are so many recreational pursuits to engage with, and some of us are workaholics.
Either way, somewhere in our history, we stopped paying attention to local politics. If we ever did.
So now, I’m paying attention. I’ve written postcards, attended meetings, listened to audio books on Robert’s Rules of Order, and talked to a lot of people on the phone and in person. I plan to help door-knock for a local special election, help with my local mayoral campaign, speak at my town meetings, testify in front of my state congress about election validity, and help register voters. I’m learning about the issues that matter to the people directly around me and doing my best to fix them. I want election integrity, I want fiscal responsibility, and I want my politicians held accountable for anything they do that’s illegal. I’m much more likely to get that locally and anyone who’s elected here will know that’s what expected if they seek a higher office.
That shouldn’t be controversial. Get involved. Take the time. Social media won’t miss you.
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Selina Rifkin, M.S. [Nutrition], LMT, has been to Hades in a handbasket. More than once. This has given her some opinions. Like most of her generation [X] she’s okay with snark. Most days she tries for good writing. But the snark, and side comments creep in. She lives with her husband, and is Mother of Cats; three boyz. Selina has written The Young Woman’s Goodlife Guide: Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 20. Or… Learn From My Pain, and How to Train Your Cat: Using a Clicker and Leash to Keep Your Indoor Cat Happy and Healthy, the Goodlife Guide to Nutrition, and The Storytellers: a Journey of Discovery.