What "is" their job anyway?
I think about politics alot. I also think about "meta" politics alot. Tonight, on the way home from work, I started thinking about who we vote for, why we vote for them, and whether we are voting for people for the wrong reasons.
When we vote for someone, we're hiring that person, as a community. We're saying we have a job that we as a society have decided is worth our tax money, and we'd like to find someone to fill that job and we're willing to pay that person to do that job.
I think thats something a lot of us forget, that politicians aren't our bosses, they don't tell us what to do, at least not in the way that your boss at work might do. A politician can't tell anyone of us what to do. Imagine that the president comes over and asks you to type up a memo for him. You don't have to do it, you might if you feel like it, and a lot of people might feel pressured, but you don't have to. On the other hand, if enough of "us" say that we want the president to write memos , DING, he has to write memos or quit his job. So thats the working relationship we have with the president.
But anyway, I think in many ways politicians work their campaigns like popularity contests, and likewise, many many voters get pulled into this idea of trying to figure out who is the most popular. And in some ways, its possible the most popular person might be the best person, maybe thats "why" hes the most popular, but in many cases, maybe hes not.
Different people have different ideas on how much the government is supposed to be involved in fixing our problems. But really thats irrelevent to this discussion, because I'm not trying to say the government should or shouldn't meddle, what I'm contemplating is how often we hire people without even thinking what their job is really supposed to be.
If you're worried about your local conditions, I'm talking about the streets around you, the businesses that open in your neighborhood, the laws that determine what you can or cannot do in your local town, the street signs, lights, and how people can drive in your block, I hope you're directing your attention to your assembly representative. Do you know your state assembly representatives and state senators? Their job is to represent you and your area. They're supposed to make certain your area is the best possible living area for "you" and your neighbors.
People focus on their senators and state representatives, but really, what they do takes so long to affect your lives, that they're the wrong people to have try and fix a lot of problems.
And the president? Whew! He's supposed to be worried about the overview of the country and how we deal with other countries, how many decisions does he make that affect my day to day life? Very few, other than some sort of metaview, maybe something I buy on a regular basis costs a bit more or costs a bit less. "Maybe" my city doesn't get nuked by a dirty bomb due to his directives to homeland security, but that sort of remote possibility is so ethereal that I don't really care, I'm much more concerned with whether the city allows too many restaurants to open in one area causing all of them to struggle to survive (and thus maybe I'll lose a favorite restaurant), or if too many streets switch to 35mph when the majority of streets here are 45.
We hire a lot of the national politicians to handle things that affect the large scheme of things, but each of us only represents 1/370,000,000 of all of the people in this country. Thats 2.7E-9 Thats how much we should each be important to someone at the National level. Now change that to your governor? In my state I am 3.3e-7 of the population, much better! and how about in my district? Maybe .00001 The numbers are simple, the lower we direct our complaints to, the more important we are to that person, and the more likely we are to be heard.
Old people seem to understand this much better, they write letters to every politician that represents them and a few who don't! But the press wants us to focus on the national stuff because its easier for them, and of course large nonprofit organizations are trying to do stuff that affects the nation so they want to get us focused on their agendas.
But honestly most of the stuff that affects "me", and what really affects "you", even if you do get riled up over whatever new nationwide cause of the week, is that street sign, road construction, or whatever they're doing on the corner.
When we vote for someone, we're hiring that person, as a community. We're saying we have a job that we as a society have decided is worth our tax money, and we'd like to find someone to fill that job and we're willing to pay that person to do that job.
I think thats something a lot of us forget, that politicians aren't our bosses, they don't tell us what to do, at least not in the way that your boss at work might do. A politician can't tell anyone of us what to do. Imagine that the president comes over and asks you to type up a memo for him. You don't have to do it, you might if you feel like it, and a lot of people might feel pressured, but you don't have to. On the other hand, if enough of "us" say that we want the president to write memos , DING, he has to write memos or quit his job. So thats the working relationship we have with the president.
But anyway, I think in many ways politicians work their campaigns like popularity contests, and likewise, many many voters get pulled into this idea of trying to figure out who is the most popular. And in some ways, its possible the most popular person might be the best person, maybe thats "why" hes the most popular, but in many cases, maybe hes not.
Different people have different ideas on how much the government is supposed to be involved in fixing our problems. But really thats irrelevent to this discussion, because I'm not trying to say the government should or shouldn't meddle, what I'm contemplating is how often we hire people without even thinking what their job is really supposed to be.
If you're worried about your local conditions, I'm talking about the streets around you, the businesses that open in your neighborhood, the laws that determine what you can or cannot do in your local town, the street signs, lights, and how people can drive in your block, I hope you're directing your attention to your assembly representative. Do you know your state assembly representatives and state senators? Their job is to represent you and your area. They're supposed to make certain your area is the best possible living area for "you" and your neighbors.
People focus on their senators and state representatives, but really, what they do takes so long to affect your lives, that they're the wrong people to have try and fix a lot of problems.
And the president? Whew! He's supposed to be worried about the overview of the country and how we deal with other countries, how many decisions does he make that affect my day to day life? Very few, other than some sort of metaview, maybe something I buy on a regular basis costs a bit more or costs a bit less. "Maybe" my city doesn't get nuked by a dirty bomb due to his directives to homeland security, but that sort of remote possibility is so ethereal that I don't really care, I'm much more concerned with whether the city allows too many restaurants to open in one area causing all of them to struggle to survive (and thus maybe I'll lose a favorite restaurant), or if too many streets switch to 35mph when the majority of streets here are 45.
We hire a lot of the national politicians to handle things that affect the large scheme of things, but each of us only represents 1/370,000,000 of all of the people in this country. Thats 2.7E-9 Thats how much we should each be important to someone at the National level. Now change that to your governor? In my state I am 3.3e-7 of the population, much better! and how about in my district? Maybe .00001 The numbers are simple, the lower we direct our complaints to, the more important we are to that person, and the more likely we are to be heard.
Old people seem to understand this much better, they write letters to every politician that represents them and a few who don't! But the press wants us to focus on the national stuff because its easier for them, and of course large nonprofit organizations are trying to do stuff that affects the nation so they want to get us focused on their agendas.
But honestly most of the stuff that affects "me", and what really affects "you", even if you do get riled up over whatever new nationwide cause of the week, is that street sign, road construction, or whatever they're doing on the corner.