Politics Be Local
All politics is local. You could argue that they are local but not that they are not local. My political partner says it’s all about the potholes. On a national level, it’s all local too. For instance, it’s far more important for Al Gore that people not be facing high heating oil costs in the northeast this fall. Major behind-the-scene machinations induced Saudi Arabia to pump more crude into the system — which illuminates just how crude the system is — so that no one in New England will shiver before election day.
On the other hand, the incessant Middle East peace process — which is terribly important to the folks who have folks who live in the Middle East — doesn’t register very high on the political importance scale here. Most people -- on both sides -- think peace there would be a good thing, but most people don’t think about the Middle East. It doesn’t really affect them, they don’t think. It means a lot to Slick Willie, who has been casting a remarkably porous net in search of a legacy. But frankly, it doesn’t as mean much to Al Gore as the Saudi deal does.
Most people don’t pay attention to — let alone care about — what happens in Washington, even. They don’t think it matters. That they pay attention. Otherwise they might care. But they think that government is controlled by special interests, and who could argue with them. Caring without the possibility of effecting change is pointless.
There are multitudinous possible scenarios for where our country is headed. The optimist view is that we could see a gelling of the truly caring around a top ticket, and for enough congressional candidates to make a difference. The mess we’re in is man-made, after all. By electing the wrong people and by shooting or merely discouraging the right people, we have handed over our governance to others. We have forgotten that we have to be vigilant and vote.
In a state the size and scope of California, politics and local seem impossible to comprehend. There are distinct racial groups who each want their share, and endless special interests that spend hundreds of millions of dollars producing and airing television commercials to sway the thin thinkers en masse into formulating ballot box policy. Prison guards, trial lawyers, and teachers. The insurance and medical industries. Now joined by the Indians.
Despite the chaos, we here in California do hold a mantle for pioneering alternative solutions via public mandate. We have passed political reform measures that the political parties have challenged in the courts, and a proposition that enables people who need marijuana for their better health to use it without getting arrested, usually. This November we’ll have a prop that would provide for school vouchers, and another that would send first-time drug offenders into treatment instead of jail.
There will also be countless local ballot measures that will actually draw most of the voters to the polls. If you get discouraged by the public turn off in national and international politics, at least you can take a measure of hope from the fact that most Americans still think they have a voice in their own communities.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.