Ideas for actually getting stuff done

My last post expressed my significant frustration with the status of the “debate” over health care. That frustration has definitely not decreased since then (it’s increased, if anything), but I have been doing a lot of thinking about what to do with it. In other words, how should I be responding to the outrageous things that are going on? For one, it’s useful to understand their significance. There have always been ignorant people in this country. They are easily ignored for most of the time. But the right is incredibly good at harnessing those people’s ignorance by lying. And so far, Democrats, or at least those on Capitol Hill, have been terrible at doing anything about it. Jon Steward did an extremely good job of pointing this out last two nights ago, with a great montage of stuttering incoherent Democrats.

What they/we need is a cohesive message. I don’t really know who should provide it. More and more, what I’m seeing from this debate is how much of politics is about disparate interests. The issues is of balance between elected representatives’ right to free choice and a centralized leadership. Ultimately, it wouldn’t be right to have one body making strategic choices; that would undermine the democratic process. So it’s an issue of individual responsibility. Do I have confidence in every person in Congress to make honest choices based on their beliefs? The short answer is no. Too many of them are in the pockets of lobbyists and special interests. That includes Democrats as well as Republicans, and not just those labeled “Blue Dog.” Enough of these divisions. We elect these people to have honest debates about values and concepts, and we need to require more of them.

So ultimately, this is the electorate’s problem. Let’s debate and discuss on our own, let’s talk to our senators, let’s stay engaged. The tactics we see now from every part of the political spectrum have arisen because Americans didn’t care, because we were content to be lied to because it sounded nice, because we were content to vilify instead of unite.

The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago. The second-best time is now. Similarly, the best time for change we could believe in was at the dawn of humanity.

The second-best time is now.