fishpit.com

The federal government right now has a lot of power relative to the amount of power it had in the past. I won't make a judgement on whether this is GOOD or BAD. I simply will give you my perspective. I will tell you what this means and the outcome and allow you to decide what is best according to your priorities. The federal government from my perspective has become impotent. Whenver progressives watn to pass something, the conservative base gets energized, and disallows this from happening (and vice versa--conservatvies trying to pass something getting blocked by ideological opponents such as 'progressives'...I dont even know what these names mean anymore). Anyway, whenever you have so much power concentrated in one area, attention tends to get monopolized by certain voting contituencies, such as unions or ideological groups such as the christian right and corporations. So when something gets passed, its more representative of these few voting blocks rather than the 300 million americans in the United States. Furthermore, 'republican' and 'democrat' are eternally vague catergories and tend to energize a very few but passionate constituency. This means that less than 20% of americans actually get out to vote, partly because most often, they don't feel very represented. Since this is the case, you end up with something like 60million americans deciding the course for the rest of the United States, and since its these aemricans that politicians rely to get elected, they cater mostly to these contituencies. This also translates to talk on the media, who dominate the narrative, on what matters most to this constituency. What happeons then, is that the majoirty of americans are perplexed about what the 'majority of americans' are arguing about on say, cnn or msnbc. A 'detachment' from reality and 'disbeleif' ensues. But it is really an illusion. Most americans are either repulsed by media nowadays, or feel disenfranchised (do a ltitle research). To washington DC, this really doesn't matter, in fact, they rather keep it like that because then they can justify the two party system and continue to gain power...you give people two crappy options and energize very few but passionate people, and you keep yourself in power at the expense of the rest of americans. Due to the crappiness of the options, people end up defining themselves more for what they are AGAINST rather than what they are for. To politicians, this is great, they can use that in order to keep themselves in power whenever the other side over-steps its bounds. After all, if you invent a reason to hate another such as identity politics (blacks vs white, women vs man), you can capitalize on that in order to gain power. In the process, however, no one constituency gets anything passed except politicians and the private interests, who get their power passed. Because whenever one ideology tries to go one direciton, the other side tries to steer it the other way, the federal government ends up becoming impotent. You alienate both extremes, you end up centered, and therefore impotent to pass anything. and if things continue to be the way they are, people will become increasingly frustrated with government and likely to buy in to a fatalistic mentality that you cannot change the system. This would be DC's dream, as they could end up passing anything they want for private interests while they remain in power.

It is amazing to me, the IMPORTANCE we give to poltiics..on television. It dominates your emotions and beleifs..supposedly, and any decision in washington DC becomes center peice to your life.

Great debates on morality and what is the 'correct' way to run a society are discussed over and over again...with the same exact result; Impotence in any direction but the center, do nothing.

It becomes a speculative excercise if you will, intellectual masterbation.

The way to make things better is not to send a george washington to DC, or find the correct and 'righteous' ideology. Thats bullshit. Politicians perhaps start as good people, but when they go to DC the quickly learn that if they do not pass legislation for private intersts, when it comes to passing things for your own people and state, they will be denined, not to mention you will be elected. Politicians are forced to make peace with these forces in order to get SOMETHING for their own people and state. The problem is the game. The correct way to go is to change the game, change the power ratio. Instead of concentrating all the power in DC, and then complaining for their incompetence. We distribute power more uniformally across the states. Instead of having allegorically, 3 people in a cramped and smelly apartment deciding the fate for 50 million people who are doomed to dissapointment. We need representatives in each building, and any organized attempt at imposition will be too self-evident unlike having people decide far away in an ivory tower in washington DC, and therefore it will be

Yes give more power to the states then the people are closer to the government.*