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October 18, 2006
Stateside lessons #1
Channel 5's slogan advertising its new digital channel is something along the lines of "not everything that comes out of the US is bad". I'm keeping a keen eye out on the forthcoming US mid-term elections and seeing what we can learn from politics and politicians stateside about our own democracy.
First report comes courtesy of that venerable institution that is Time magazine. Their front cover story is on that new political pin-up and the man who one day hopefully will be king; or rather president - Barak Obama. Of most interest is this litte vignette about accountability. Or, rather, the lack of accountability in a system with so many safe seats (a la the Commons).
About halfway through the hour-long meeting, a middle-aged man stands up and says what seems to be on everyone's mind, with appropriate passion: "Congress hasn't done a damn thing this year. I'm tired of the politicians blaming each other. We should throw them all out and start over!" "Including me?" the senator asks. A chorus of n-o-o-o-s. "Not you," the man says. "You're brand new."
Obama wanders into a casual disquisition about the sluggish nature of democracy. The answer is not even remotely a standard, pretaped political response. He talks about how political gerrymandering has led to a generation of politicians who come from safe districts where they don't have to consider the other side of the debate, which has made compromise -- and therefore legislative progress -- more difficult.
A different type of politics, brought on by more competitive races, is a message we should hear more politicians here advocating too.
Posted by malcolmclark on October 18, 2006
