Local politics, yadda, yadda
The Houston Press, our alt mag, pithily sized up our mayoral election: black guy, rich white guy, lesbian or Hispanic republican.
Confused?
This is a restaurant not far from my neighborhood.
That sentence probably sums up the extent of their differences. The candidates policy platforms all sound suspiciously similar. No one is really off-putting or challenging. Maybe during the run-offs we will see some spark or scrapiness. But right now, I don't care who wins. How many races can you say that about?
To kick off the local political season, here are some questions that continually roll around my head:
1) How much does the person or the events shape what is accomplished during the term? This question is similar to the eternal history question: do great persons arise and shape history or does the time period create the vacuum for a person to fill and become great?
Bureaucracy is a fixed machine you have to navigate around or get mired in, though when it is helpful you can slide quickly through the channels. And there are elected city officials, constituents, polling, a budget...
2) How much political information should you keep track of to be considered a good, active citizen? Should persons who do not investigate issues or candidates vote on those issues or candidates, or do the ignorant, the biased and the educated all balance each other out?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
--Thomas Jefferson to C. Yancey, 1816.
This is a loaded question I know; you can never know everything, or even enough, but you do hit considerably diminished returns after a time. And if the ignorant don't participate, then there is no democracy. Maybe it is a false question, but one worth asking.
Confused?
This is a restaurant not far from my neighborhood.
That sentence probably sums up the extent of their differences. The candidates policy platforms all sound suspiciously similar. No one is really off-putting or challenging. Maybe during the run-offs we will see some spark or scrapiness. But right now, I don't care who wins. How many races can you say that about?
To kick off the local political season, here are some questions that continually roll around my head:
1) How much does the person or the events shape what is accomplished during the term? This question is similar to the eternal history question: do great persons arise and shape history or does the time period create the vacuum for a person to fill and become great?
Bureaucracy is a fixed machine you have to navigate around or get mired in, though when it is helpful you can slide quickly through the channels. And there are elected city officials, constituents, polling, a budget...
2) How much political information should you keep track of to be considered a good, active citizen? Should persons who do not investigate issues or candidates vote on those issues or candidates, or do the ignorant, the biased and the educated all balance each other out?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
--Thomas Jefferson to C. Yancey, 1816.
This is a loaded question I know; you can never know everything, or even enough, but you do hit considerably diminished returns after a time. And if the ignorant don't participate, then there is no democracy. Maybe it is a false question, but one worth asking.