Why I Do Not Care What The Government Is Doing
I should preface this by saying that I don't have a dog in this fight.
Not really. I don't really think of myself as a Republican or a Democrat. I'm sure if you psychoanalyzed my dreams you could figure out which one I am, but I don't actually believe that would accomplish a whole lot. I don't call myself a moderate, because that term is essentially meaningless anyway.
But, for practical purposes, I don't vote. Never have, and until someone gives me a good reason, I'm not going to. Unfortunately, it's been eleven years since I sprouted wings and hit voting age, and I don't expect to be given a good reason anytime soon. So it goes. You people who are into politics can keep holding your Kool-Aid parties. I'm unlikely to cause any trouble here by shouting at this wall I'm writing on.
That being said, I had a thought the other day, and I felt the urge to articulate it someplace. I have a friend who I've known for the past three years, and I can say with full confidence that he favors a more liberal agenda. At least, I think he does. I deduced this from hours of him telling me how terrible the Republicans are. By process of elimination, I'm assuming he's probably a Democrat. I may be going out on a limb.
So, earlier this week, he was prattling on about some issue in Congress or something, and he's telling me how terrible the conservatives are. And while he's talking, my mind is doing what it normally does during these discussions: wandering. I think I was working through some computer problem in my head. (Coincidentally, I do this very same thing when my dad is bashing the liberals.)
But as he was talking, my mind thought back to my freshman year of college, when I was enrolled in some "Political Science 101" class. What I learned, in short: conservatives favor smaller government, liberals favor bigger government. I know that's an oversimplification, but that's what this asshole professor taught me, and I've heard it since then, so let's roll with it for now.
Back to my friend, bashing Republicans. I interrupted him and said, "Just a second, I want to ask you something."
"Sure," he said.
"So, you're a liberal, right?" I asked him. He replied that he was. "So, you think government creates positive good in society, that we should have more of it, as opposed to Republicans, who view government as a necessary evil and think we should keep it to a bare minimum."
"That sounds about right, yes," he said, accepting the line I had just drawn in the sand.
I went on. "So, next question: in the past three years I've known you, and you've spent all this time talking about the federal government, have you ever once said a single positive thing to me about what they're doing?"
He didn't seem to have instances he could offer. I honestly couldn't remember a single one, and neither could he.
"All right," I said, "so, if everything that's happening in Washington D.C. is terrible, why would I ever favor a more progressive agenda?"
My friend responded by saying something about (I'm paraphrasing here) hating the playas, but not the game. Which I get; the current Congress is conservative.
But there's a fundamental problem here, and it's simple in concept:
The more liberals complain about government, the more they further a conservative agenda.
I don't care which side is doing what in Congress, I don't care which side is at fault, or what the issues are. Yes, the few of you who are actively involved in politics care deeply about the issues, and you're firmly decided. But the rest of us, the masses you're trying to reach, we're not interested in following along that closely. We're in the nosebleed section of the stadium, straining to get a glimpse. We're just watching the headlines and reading the occasional news article. We're trying to get a sense of how we should feel about things. We're trying to form an impression based on a limited trickle of interest. And based on this superficial, incomplete, fuzzy picture in our minds, we make a decision about what our core values our. And we vote these core values.
And if it's all bad news coming out of D.C., then tell me this: doesn't that mean government comes off as nothing more than a necessary evil? Do not tell me it's a conservative government at the moment! When you say that, I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing, "Government is bad, blah blah. The bums in Washington suck, blah blah." That's the impression you're leaving on my brain. Why should I ever vote to increase taxes if the political system is such a plague on our society? Why should I even care?
Now, I'm not that smart, and I'm not that well-read (politically), so I'm 100% certain that I'm not the first person to recognize this as a problem. But I've yet to find anyone who's doing anything about this.
Even during all of the debt ceiling hullabaloo that happened a couple of weeks ago, I was sure that someone had done something good during all of this ruckus. What it was, I didn't know, but I figured at least one U.S. Senator had introduced and passed a bill giving some aid to some war veterans. Or some tax break for a nail polish manufacturer that was going to be used to hire more workers in Philadelphia. Or maybe legislation helping coal miners with their rights. Something.
I entered "U.S. Congress" into Google News. The first 10 pages of results were all articles about the debt ceiling debate. After that, I stopped looking.
I understand why we always report on what's timely. But I have yet to hear anyone say they were happy with the debt ceiling resolution. Again, all bad news. And if it's all bad news, then once again, I posit: why should I pay attention, and why should I ever favor adding or increasing the size of any government programs? After the 600th or 700th crisis I've heard about in my life, I started tuning out. And for some reason everything is a crisis.
This is a problem. And to be clear, I don't see it as a progressive problem. I don't see it as a conservative problem. I honestly think that civic disengagement is a problem for both parties, because it reduces voter turnout on both sides. I'm pretty disengaged myself, and I've been waiting over a decade for someone to get me to care. Not because society owes it to me, but for another reason entirely: if someone can engage me, they're probably engaging almost everyone else, too. Because I honestly, passionately don't care, but I keep an open mind. So I'm lying in wait.
I've yet to find a news source that consistently looks on the bright side. "Here's what happened in Congress today, and here is why it's awesome."
You do read news stories like this on occasion, but they're usually reporting partisan victories. Republicans defeat a Democrat bill, or vice versa. The problem with these victories is that they aren't mine. They're party victories, and they're celebrated / reported as such.
I have a half a mind to clobber together a blog of my own that would report such things. I would find a few good, positive pieces of news per week that would offer people a more favorable view of what governments, both federal and local, are doing in the United States. (I'd stay away from hot button issues.) I know that each and every day, there are hundreds of elected officials doing small things that matter, and they're not given a voice, because nobody cares. So it goes.
I care. But to be honest, there's a lot of news out there, and every time I've tried to wade through it, it just gets depressing. It seems our whole media is based on "send your representatives an angry email every time you're pissed off", instead of "thank them for the hard work they did last week passing legislation that positively affected you." In light of this, curating the content for such an "optimistic" news site as I'm proposing would be too big a task for me. I'd build some kind of software to crowdsource it, but I figure then people would start submitting stories about partisan victories (e.g. "We passed Prop 8!") and arguments would start in the comments and it would devolve into something resembling YouTube without any videos. A grim prospect indeed.
I actually am optimistic. I don't know what party that means I belong to. I think this country has great days ahead of it. Will there be difficulties? Yes. Is the federal government dysfunctional? Yes. For the 222nd year in a row. They're going to have to try a whole lot harder than they are to worry me, because this "madness" or whatever people are calling it is just business as usual.
But as long as it keeps on being perceived as "madness", the steps we take forward are going to be slow.
Not really. I don't really think of myself as a Republican or a Democrat. I'm sure if you psychoanalyzed my dreams you could figure out which one I am, but I don't actually believe that would accomplish a whole lot. I don't call myself a moderate, because that term is essentially meaningless anyway.
But, for practical purposes, I don't vote. Never have, and until someone gives me a good reason, I'm not going to. Unfortunately, it's been eleven years since I sprouted wings and hit voting age, and I don't expect to be given a good reason anytime soon. So it goes. You people who are into politics can keep holding your Kool-Aid parties. I'm unlikely to cause any trouble here by shouting at this wall I'm writing on.
That being said, I had a thought the other day, and I felt the urge to articulate it someplace. I have a friend who I've known for the past three years, and I can say with full confidence that he favors a more liberal agenda. At least, I think he does. I deduced this from hours of him telling me how terrible the Republicans are. By process of elimination, I'm assuming he's probably a Democrat. I may be going out on a limb.
So, earlier this week, he was prattling on about some issue in Congress or something, and he's telling me how terrible the conservatives are. And while he's talking, my mind is doing what it normally does during these discussions: wandering. I think I was working through some computer problem in my head. (Coincidentally, I do this very same thing when my dad is bashing the liberals.)
But as he was talking, my mind thought back to my freshman year of college, when I was enrolled in some "Political Science 101" class. What I learned, in short: conservatives favor smaller government, liberals favor bigger government. I know that's an oversimplification, but that's what this asshole professor taught me, and I've heard it since then, so let's roll with it for now.
Back to my friend, bashing Republicans. I interrupted him and said, "Just a second, I want to ask you something."
"Sure," he said.
"So, you're a liberal, right?" I asked him. He replied that he was. "So, you think government creates positive good in society, that we should have more of it, as opposed to Republicans, who view government as a necessary evil and think we should keep it to a bare minimum."
"That sounds about right, yes," he said, accepting the line I had just drawn in the sand.
I went on. "So, next question: in the past three years I've known you, and you've spent all this time talking about the federal government, have you ever once said a single positive thing to me about what they're doing?"
He didn't seem to have instances he could offer. I honestly couldn't remember a single one, and neither could he.
"All right," I said, "so, if everything that's happening in Washington D.C. is terrible, why would I ever favor a more progressive agenda?"
My friend responded by saying something about (I'm paraphrasing here) hating the playas, but not the game. Which I get; the current Congress is conservative.
But there's a fundamental problem here, and it's simple in concept:
The more liberals complain about government, the more they further a conservative agenda.
I don't care which side is doing what in Congress, I don't care which side is at fault, or what the issues are. Yes, the few of you who are actively involved in politics care deeply about the issues, and you're firmly decided. But the rest of us, the masses you're trying to reach, we're not interested in following along that closely. We're in the nosebleed section of the stadium, straining to get a glimpse. We're just watching the headlines and reading the occasional news article. We're trying to get a sense of how we should feel about things. We're trying to form an impression based on a limited trickle of interest. And based on this superficial, incomplete, fuzzy picture in our minds, we make a decision about what our core values our. And we vote these core values.
And if it's all bad news coming out of D.C., then tell me this: doesn't that mean government comes off as nothing more than a necessary evil? Do not tell me it's a conservative government at the moment! When you say that, I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing, "Government is bad, blah blah. The bums in Washington suck, blah blah." That's the impression you're leaving on my brain. Why should I ever vote to increase taxes if the political system is such a plague on our society? Why should I even care?
Now, I'm not that smart, and I'm not that well-read (politically), so I'm 100% certain that I'm not the first person to recognize this as a problem. But I've yet to find anyone who's doing anything about this.
Even during all of the debt ceiling hullabaloo that happened a couple of weeks ago, I was sure that someone had done something good during all of this ruckus. What it was, I didn't know, but I figured at least one U.S. Senator had introduced and passed a bill giving some aid to some war veterans. Or some tax break for a nail polish manufacturer that was going to be used to hire more workers in Philadelphia. Or maybe legislation helping coal miners with their rights. Something.
I entered "U.S. Congress" into Google News. The first 10 pages of results were all articles about the debt ceiling debate. After that, I stopped looking.
I understand why we always report on what's timely. But I have yet to hear anyone say they were happy with the debt ceiling resolution. Again, all bad news. And if it's all bad news, then once again, I posit: why should I pay attention, and why should I ever favor adding or increasing the size of any government programs? After the 600th or 700th crisis I've heard about in my life, I started tuning out. And for some reason everything is a crisis.
This is a problem. And to be clear, I don't see it as a progressive problem. I don't see it as a conservative problem. I honestly think that civic disengagement is a problem for both parties, because it reduces voter turnout on both sides. I'm pretty disengaged myself, and I've been waiting over a decade for someone to get me to care. Not because society owes it to me, but for another reason entirely: if someone can engage me, they're probably engaging almost everyone else, too. Because I honestly, passionately don't care, but I keep an open mind. So I'm lying in wait.
I've yet to find a news source that consistently looks on the bright side. "Here's what happened in Congress today, and here is why it's awesome."
You do read news stories like this on occasion, but they're usually reporting partisan victories. Republicans defeat a Democrat bill, or vice versa. The problem with these victories is that they aren't mine. They're party victories, and they're celebrated / reported as such.
I have a half a mind to clobber together a blog of my own that would report such things. I would find a few good, positive pieces of news per week that would offer people a more favorable view of what governments, both federal and local, are doing in the United States. (I'd stay away from hot button issues.) I know that each and every day, there are hundreds of elected officials doing small things that matter, and they're not given a voice, because nobody cares. So it goes.
I care. But to be honest, there's a lot of news out there, and every time I've tried to wade through it, it just gets depressing. It seems our whole media is based on "send your representatives an angry email every time you're pissed off", instead of "thank them for the hard work they did last week passing legislation that positively affected you." In light of this, curating the content for such an "optimistic" news site as I'm proposing would be too big a task for me. I'd build some kind of software to crowdsource it, but I figure then people would start submitting stories about partisan victories (e.g. "We passed Prop 8!") and arguments would start in the comments and it would devolve into something resembling YouTube without any videos. A grim prospect indeed.
I actually am optimistic. I don't know what party that means I belong to. I think this country has great days ahead of it. Will there be difficulties? Yes. Is the federal government dysfunctional? Yes. For the 222nd year in a row. They're going to have to try a whole lot harder than they are to worry me, because this "madness" or whatever people are calling it is just business as usual.
But as long as it keeps on being perceived as "madness", the steps we take forward are going to be slow.