Moving Towards the Center…
Why is the political center such a desolate place these days? Because it’s boring!
That may sound cynical, but it’s this writer’s belief that there is some truth to the statement.
Allow me to elaborate.
In today’s technological environment, our political figures have never had more outlets for exposure, communication, and controversy as they do today. Oh, I almost forgot, it could be used for getting the business of the people done too.
How many followers you have on (insert social media platform here) is as much of a concern to key government officials as how their polling numbers are looking. Basically, ratings, although not in the traditional TV sense. On social media, followers who hate you are just as helpful as those who love you. If it gets your name or your message bandied around the internet, it’s a good thing.
Going along about the daily business of governing isn’t particularly exciting. If you don’t believe me, just watch CSPAN. Nobody is going to wow their followers with posts about calling a colleague to have them cast their proxy vote on the floor.
The drive for social media relevance pushes our civil servants to trend towards the dramatic. Stir up controversies. Call out their opponents and get their respective bases riled up. Calm and cooperation doesn’t drive high ratings.
Another key element to the survival of a politician that calm and cooperation doesn’t drive very well is fundraising. Key members of congress have admitted that dramatic actions and extreme language raises more money. We all know that EVERY politician wants more money for campaigning.
The sad reality in today’s world may be that being someone who would use cooperative language, speak from the center and be the legislator of bridging the aisle to get things done is a losing proposition. Our current president is more towards the center than a lot of democrats. I would speculate that his ability to get elected in 2020 was allowed to succeed due to a perfect storm of crisis and an incumbent administration that couldn’t get out of it’s own way and cost them the election. I wish I believed it was because he was more of a centrist thinker.
At the same time, we have long time members of congress leaving their post due to party gridlock. Some members of congress and A LOT of average Americans have been fed up with congressional grid lock for decades. The width of the divide and the intensity of the rancor seems to have both increased in recent years.
These topics could consume far more white space than any blog reader would want to consume, but these are real issues within our system of government.
It’s this writers desire to continue the conversation with anyone who will listen about demanding more from our elected officials. On every level. Many of us can get more involved. Do our homework on candidates, the issues of the day, and become a meaningful part of the process.
All of our ‘leaders’ need to be accountable for producing results during their time in office. They all have websites and easy ways to contact them. I urge anyone who’s serious about sharing their opinion with an elected official to take a couple of minutes to search for their official contacts. While it’s satisfying to make your opinions known in a Twitter reply chain, it won’t get seen. No guarantee it will through official channels either. But if it doesn’t then, it’s on them, not you. In a dream world, we’d have more people who found that watching CSPAN was interesting.
The next four years will be very interesting on this front. Regardless of your party affiliation or approval of the current president, I think it’s safe to say that technology will be used in a different way in this administration. It will be closely watched for sure.
Maybe someday we can get to where Washington is a little more boring but a lot more effective by moving their thinking more towards the center. So let’s continue the constructive discussions and sharing of ideas.