Politics. The very word strikes anger, suspicion and doubt in many Americans. An Associated Press poll of 1,060 people nationwide (2016) shows almost four out of every 10 Americans have "hardly any" trust in the U.S. political system. The same poll found that only 1 in 10 have a great deal of confidence in the system.
To so many people, elected leaders are public servants who seem to spend most of their time and money serving themselves and their party or support group. Of course, they should do the will of the people by prioritizing compromise and solution to enact bipartisan answers to pressing problems.
The fact remains that the billionaire class and its rigged economy are parts of the topsy-turvy political system. Senator Bernie Sanders has given voice to the mounting anger of millions of young and working-class Americans who want a denunciation of class inequality and corporate power. This outcry is nothing new – review Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, Ralph Nader in 2000, and the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in 2011.
Still …
The
political establishment was quick to use the “s”
word to label Sanders and cast him in a highly questionable light – he was
widely branded as a socialist for his platform against wealth
inequality and corporate greed. Yet, Sanders flatly disavows the very
heart of socialism as defined by Karl Marx: “I don’t believe
government should own the means of production.” In actuality, a
better description of his belief that working families who produce
the wealth of America deserve a fair deal is social
democracy.
Sanders lost the Democratic nomination
for president to Hillary Clinton. And, all of us who have lived
through desperately needed reform like the civil rights movement
understand a sea change progresses in small, measured steps. It will
take considerable time to change politics into something more like
what Sanders envisions – less money and more people.
Getting money out of the political
process and bringing more people into it will require some way that
the poor and working class, those without significant resources, can
confront those in the political system with seemingly unlimited money
and support systems.
Patrick Barrett, Ph.D and
administrative director of the A. E. Havens Center for Social Justice
at the University of Wisconsin, says ...
“All of this underscores what is
perhaps the most serious strategic shortcoming of the Sanders
campaign -- despite its implicit condemnation of the political
system, it has, to date, offered no real plan for transforming it, or
even the partisan composition of Congress. For example, there is no
army of Sanders allies running for the House and Senate, and even if
there were, they would run up against the extraordinary power of
incumbency.”
(Patrick Barrett. “Can
We Change the Political System? Strategic Lessons of the Bernie
Sanders Campaign.” Truthout. March 25, 2016.)
Although …
People desperately want change in politics. The constant chatter on social media underscores the unrest of liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans alike. Despite this discontent, the parties seem to offer nominees that do little to satiate the public's dissatisfaction with the system. In a cycle of “same old, same old,” the partisan candidates are beholden to those who fund their campaigns. So, over and over, the people find choices who support politics over substance.
Two glaring problems with "people representation" are voter registration and voter turnout. The website “Statistic Brain” puts the total number of Americans eligible to vote at 218,959,000. Of these, 146,311,000 are registered. The total number of Americans who voted in the 2012 Presidential election was 126,144,000 or 57.5%.
How amazing it is that 42.5% of
American citizens do not exercise their most basic democratic right
of voting for the President of the United States? In the age of
communication – with cell phones, ipads, tablets, and pc's
constantly processing volumes of information – you would think the
vast majority of eligible voters would take the time to mark a
ballot -- the most direct way to express opinion.
I think the propensity to complain
about the corrupt American political system without committing the
slightest effort to help make changes is an attribute of a large number of
Americans who simply scapegoat others for their own inadequacies.
With the rights and freedoms they possess, these people simply
exercise their political voice by blaming opponents, never intending
to seek real solutions or to find unbiased answers. They truly enjoy venting without supporting.
Do I believe the political system needs
vast reform? I do. However, words of condemnation are cheap and often
used as nothing more that emotional outlets of disgust. I have seen
so much hatred, name calling, and prejudice in the 2016 campaign.
Ugly describes the entire process. At times the juvenile
behavior of candidates and their supporters showed itself to be worse
that that of young kids on an elementary playground.
And, yes, I am aware of the long history of
contentious political practices. Yet, you would think history,
itself, would encourage positive changes in political behavior. You
may use the cliché “It's the nature of the beast” to justify the
horrid behaviors. To that, I would say that beastly behavior is very
counterproductive to a working political process.
Derrick A. Bell, the first tenured
African-American professor of law at Harvard Law School, once said, “Education leads to enlightenment.
Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.”
Doesn't politics need to put a much higher premium on both education
and empathy? To me, these qualities are often poorly lacking in
candidates who say they intend to represent us – we, the people
striving to form a more perfect union.
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