Let's talk about Politics

I’m going to climb on my soapbox for a minute. Senator John McCain, who recently announced his candidacy for President in 2008, posted a question on Yahoo Answers asking for feedback on how to reduce government waste. Though there were some great, thoughtful answers, and some not so good, I was mainly appalled by the number of people who posted answers in the vein of “we elected you, it’s your job to fix it”.

Whether or not I agree with him on the issues, I thought it was awesome that the Senator posted a question on a public forum asking for our feedback. We have a representative Republic, and it IS our job to tell our representatives what we think and what we would like them to do. We are not supposed to sit back and let these folks decide everything without our input! With democracy comes responsibility.

The first part of that responsibility is to VOTE. I cannot believe how many people I have come in contact with who don’t vote. Statistics show that only around 50% of eligible American voters show up to the polls. If you don’t vote, you are letting other people decide for you. Before you cast your vote, it’s also necessary to find out about the candidates and the issues. Don’t rely on the TV media. Go to the candidates’ web sites, find other articles about them online. and if they’ve been in public office for a while, find out about their voting record on the issues you care about.

A good non-partisan resource I have found is congress.org. It’s a grassroots citizen’s forum with tools to help navigate the confusing political process. You can find out who your representatives in the House and Senate are, you can sign up to get a weekly e-mail update of upcoming legislation, and find out how your representatives voted. The e-mails will often include a form that you can fill out with a couple of clicks to write a personal e-mail to your Senators or Congressperson.

Besides Federal representatives, we also have State representatives. I have written several e-mails to my two state senators, and every time I have gotten a personal response, sometimes the same day. I believe that the best way to effect real change is from the bottom up – start with your local city council. Find out what’s going on in your neighborhood. It’s all about getting involved.

I have a real life example to share. My friend Debbie lives in an older neighborhood here in Scottsdale AZ. The city provides grants for public art projects. As my friend thought it would be a good idea, she got some of her neighbors together and they applied for an art installation in the neighborhood. The city chose an artist who proposed a fun and funky design to liven up a dirt lot at the main street leading to their enclave. They held neighborhood council meetings to get feedback from the neighbors. Not many people showed up, until the city actually started breaking ground for the project.

Then, several neighbors decided they did not like the artwork. They contacted the newspaper. They attended city hall meetings. They wrote to the Mayor. In the end, they got what they wanted. The project was cancelled. My friend is disappointed, but she realized the power of just a few voices.

We may not have a perfect system, and the current two-party political system leaves much to be desired. But we do have the power to change and influence it, IF we decide to get involved.