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October 27, 2004Representative DemocracyAccording to his blog, Josh Ferguson has finally voted. With the Blogger’s for Bush banner on his site, I expect that I probably would have voted differently than he did on many issues. However, is blog entry about voting has some very important comments. He lives in California and notes that he and his wife spent six hours studying the 24 different propositions on his ballot. He writes about this:
I must applaud him for his efforts to understand and make wise choices on the propositions. I imagine many people will first read many of the propositions when they get to the polling place, and cast votes without thinking out the issues. I think his conclusion about the importance of a representative government is right on the mark. My wife is running for State Representative in Connecticut. Over the past several months we have spent a lot of time working together and getting feedback from friends about many issues that our state faces and even more ideas about how to address these issues. One of the goals of my wife’s campaign has been to get more people involved in politics and thinking about the issues. I hope that we will see more legislative blogs and online forums, which will enable legislators to be more effective. I hope we will see more people running for Representative on local and state levels. However, with Josh, I hope we hold onto some of the value that a representative form of government brings. Comments
To vote intelligently on the many initiatives in every election in the State of California is an almost unsurmountably task. One approach taken by a friend of mine was to vote according to the information that he got from the tv; another just skipped the ones he didn't have enough info on. We have had many Corporate supported (and sponsered) issues put on the ballot deliberately to confuse or persuade an uninformed populace to do what is in the best interests of the Corp. and not necessarily - and in many cases, opposing- the interest of the citizens of Ca. I think that these situations would be alleviated if Iniatives were only put on the ballot on non-presidental elections. An added bonus, which is so desperately needed, is the possibility that the local elections and local initiatives would get more publicity and therefore a better informed electorate. The local elections will become more important if those elected recieve all the revenues that are included in Prop 1a if it passes. In Canada, the Federal (Presendential), Provincial (State) and municiple elections are all held at different times. There are obvious problems with this system as well--the increased costs, but whoever said democracy was cheap. I hear Dean in my head when I think of the local elections--all positions are important, whether local, State or National. How right he is. Posted by: sandy Johnson at October 28, 2004 10:57 AMPost a comment
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