"All told: I think the only way to really help is to vote your ass off again next year." One way to know that we live in a wildly unhealthy "democracy" is the complete reduction/distillation of the rich tapestry of Democracy to the act of voting. This reductionism is part of a long-term project that has left the masses as only button pushers who participate in the democratic process once every 2-4 years. Whither a rich, deliberative decision-making process? Whither our citizen assemblies? Whither our rights to local self governance?
It's worth at least skimming the 2020 report titled "Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions" to get a vision for what democracy COULD be. Sadly, I agree that right now we are mostly just button pushers, at least federally. My encouragement to anyone who feels disempowered and demobilized is to get engaged in local government and neighborhood commissions, which is where real and profound work is being done and where your voice is more likely to matter.
"All told: I think the only way to really help is to vote your ass off again next year." One way to know that we live in a wildly unhealthy "democracy" is the complete reduction/distillation of the rich tapestry of Democracy to the act of voting. This reductionism is part of a long-term project that has left the masses as only button pushers who participate in the democratic process once every 2-4 years. Whither a rich, deliberative decision-making process? Whither our citizen assemblies? Whither our rights to local self governance?
It's worth at least skimming the 2020 report titled "Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions" to get a vision for what democracy COULD be. Sadly, I agree that right now we are mostly just button pushers, at least federally. My encouragement to anyone who feels disempowered and demobilized is to get engaged in local government and neighborhood commissions, which is where real and profound work is being done and where your voice is more likely to matter.
https://www.oecd.org/gov/open-government/innovative-citizen-participation-new-democratic-institutions-catching-the-deliberative-wave-highlights.pdf