After a moment of internal debate, I flipped the channel.
And then I flipped it back to the game. But I had to see what was coming next.
So back to the Legislature I went. It was a debate about a state healthcare
exchange. I couldn’t have cared less about the outcome, but I couldn’t turn
away.
Hello, my name is Joe. And I’m a geek. I love politics. Love
the creation of public policy, and the drama and soap-operaness of it all. Lots
of people I know hate politics. They hate discussing it and their eyes glaze
over whenever I bring it up. “There’s absolutely nothing appealing about it,”
they tell me.
Fair enough, I say. It isn’t appealing. Many people call the
political process the equivalent of sausage-making, and it’s true – the end
product can be good, depending on your tastes, but you sure as hell don’t want
to see what it took to arrive there. For the most part, I’m an interested
bystander in the entire political process. I read political websites and watch
politics on TV when nobody is looking. I annoy the heck out of my wife when I
get going about. I wonder about someday running for office myself and I send my
elected representatives emails from time to time.
“But why do you care?”
I get that question a lot.
I care because the decisions politicians make today affect
not only me, but also my parents and kids and their kids. I care because
politicians are exactly the same as you and me – they don’t have a direct line
to God and they don’t always do the right thing. Absent pressure from regular
citizens, they very well may do the wrong thing (at least from my point of
view). I care because when they do the wrong thing, they need to be held
accountable. I care because in the political process, it doesn’t take much
effort to make a difference.
We’re lucky in this nation to be able to elect the people
who represent us. That’s a right that came at a steep cost. We’re lucky that
when our guy or gal doesn’t win, we can point out his or her competitor’s
shortcomings. We can criticize his or her decisions. But you can’t do that if
you don’t participate in the process. Democracy, after all, is for those who
show up. While it’s true you can’t bitch if you don’t vote, too many of us stop
participating once we’ve walked out of our voting place.
We decide at the ballot box who represents us. But it’s only
after that when those folks’ decisions shape our future. And you can’t be a
part of it if you tune it out and just wait for the next election.
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