apathy, political policy, and a good dose of Thomas Jefferson

Politics are of the most fickle nature. I've never been one for politics, but I do try my best to follow the major political changes our country undergoes. I do, however, enjoy history and the lessons that it teaches us. Still, my impression of this whole business is that a) true history is an oxymoron and b) from what we can discern from our forefathers, we, as a nation's people, have grown sadly apathetic to the processes of our government.

Thomas Jefferson said that every generation needs a new revolution. He was, of course, not saying that we should take up arms against our government every 20 or so years. Rather, he was saying that we as a people should never ever become complacent with the actions of our governing body. Basically, if you don't like something that is happening in congress, the senate or anywhere in public life, speak up!

The problem with our form of government, (if one were to ask my opinion,) is that although our voice is supposedly heard through our "representatives," it seems that they don't always choose to stand with the majority or even what they deem as right. Lobbying is abundant nowadays, and even one vote swayed by it essentially silences the voices of millions of people. On the other hand, a pure, Athenian democracy would be worse; mob rule favors only the majority.

So, what are we to do? We are long overdo for a revolution. What's ended up happening is that over the last hundred years, America has suffered from improper representation in D.C. Power seeks out as much of itself as it can find, and that is true of every system.

I am not writing this in an attempt to persuade your opinion of the way our government should be run. I am merely recognizing a correlation between the current unhappy state of our government, (war in Iraq, The Department of Homeland Security, the patriot act, etc.) guided by a lack of good representation and the tendency for our government to become more and more centralized. The power of the states have never been weaker than they are now. Why are states rights important? Because each state representative is responsible for representing a smaller body of people, (which means that representing their views and needs more precisely is possible.) That, and the fact that lobbying is harder to achieve when a) the decision of one state representative has little to no affect on the whole United States and, b) there are too many state representatives in the whole country to make a worthwhile affect on the outcome of decisions.

Thanks for tolerating my ramblings,

L.F. Braley