17 April 2006
Politics should be local
As the founders intended
Part of the genius of how the framers of the U.S. Constitution set things up was that the Constitution divided and dispersed authority and power. By creating a limited, bottom-up form of government that left the majority of power in the hands of the member states of the union, elected officials were more accountable to those whom they represented. The late Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House, was famous for saying, “All politics is local.” While in a sense this was true, it doesn’t seem so today. Over time, our form of government has been literally turned on its head. We have an ever-centralizing, top-down government that claims unlimited authority and power. Elected representatives appear to view themselves as unaccountable to those they are supposed to represent (the citizens of their district, state, county, city, etc., that vote), and seem to represent special interests that finance their campaigns and lifestyles. So what to do about this?
Recently I received an e-mail on an effort to try and tackle this problem. An online survey is being conducted to gather input on certain issues, which in turn will provide information that can be used in confronting politicians and would-be politicians running for office. But there is a twist to the survey. It is called the ‘2006 Sense of the South’ (www.senseofthesouth.com) survey, and is focused on the Southern region of the United States.
I find this approach interesting because most surveys/polls are done by politician’s pollsters, and focus either on their districts/towns, or surveys are done ‘nationally.’ I put ‘nationally’ in quote marks because over 90% f these so-called national surveys are conducted in one of two states: California or New York. This means that the heartland of America, the infamous ‘fly-over country,’ is not polled. The ‘Sense of the South’ survey is attempting to bridge the gap between local and national polling, getting the feel of a region, and then presenting its findings for all to see.
The majority of the questions in this survey could be applied anywhere in the U.S., with only a few being directly oriented towards the South. I believe the concept is good, because it is not just another effort to try and influence ALL of the politicians, but is focusing on a specific group of politicians. This is as the founders intended things to be. Let the majority of issues be decided at the local level and make the representatives more accountable locally.
From the looks of things on this web site, the creators expect to post their results and make them available to any and all who want to use the data to pressure politicians on the issues contained in the survey. Does the survey address all my concerns? No. Is the survey perfect? Hardly. But it is a start, and I see it as having the potential for providing useful information that could be used in hammering politicians on issues they have either ignored for too long, or have consistently worked on in a manner that is at odds with the interests of those they are suppose to represent. Think of it; if a Southern politician is confronted with the results of this survey data, and asked if they agree or disagree with the general results/view of people in the survey, what do you think they would do? This could be another tool to hold the crooks-in-office, at every level of government, to some measure of accountability.
Only time will tell how effective this effort will be to capture the views of Southerners and get it in front of politicians. But why should only the South be of concern? Perhaps some other industrious folks out there would consider creating similar survey sites for other regions of the U.S. By breaking down the views of people, region by region, politicians will get a better clue as to what they should be doing, rather than merely listening to the media, lobbyists, and their own press releases.
Jeff Adams