Citizenship - "Dumb and Dumber"

I don’t think I ever learned so much as the almost five years I served in Parliament. It was like having a university come to you and teach some of the most important research, data and social trends in a manner purposefully dedicated to assist in passing better legislation. So much of it has stuck with me specifically because organizations send their best communicators to the Hill to press their point. To hear information is one thing; to get it from gifted presenters is quite another.Which makes you wonder, then, why Ottawa has made so many dumb decisions. Sitting on pertinent committees, MPs heard powerful testimony on the decline in research funding, the imminence of climate catastrophe, the opportunities in Africa or the need for a smarter population. And then we turned right around and permitted legislation to pass that primarily stalled any progress in such areas. We had the Library of Parliament, bureaucratic experts, terrific researchers, first-hand witnesses, studies galore, and a few passionate MPs pressing for action. How could we ignore all that data, all that urgency? We had five years to crack it, but couldn’t find the will to succeed. It all just goes to show that a good education is continually blunted and neglected through ideology and hyper-partisanship.Most citizens reading these last two paragraphs will agree, as is to be expected. But let’s look at the other side of the democratic equation: the citizen. With so much available to the average citizen, there is really little excuse for ignorance or inaction. And yet the engagement of citizens in the democratic process is continuing to erode. There are tens of thousands of concerned and active Canadians of all ages who summon up any bit of information they can acquire and then press it through various venues to improve Canadian life. They are dedicated. They are principled. They are the minority.Many of the blind partisans that continue to enjoy the political games forget that the purpose of politics and elections is not simply to produce winners but instead to advance the public good through compromise, objective data, and sacrifice. Yet the average citizen continues to be pressed to the back of the bus while lobbyists, partisans, and the political professionals determine the direction and the methods. Citizens are increasingly persuaded to take on the role of mere consumers, while at the same time permitting those issues that truly affect their present state to be managed by others who care little of the impending dangers so long as they retain power. Our hopes that things could be set right with the ballot box remain just that – hopes. If you are looking for power, forget the vote; look instead to the money, the party hacks, and, yes, the six o’clock news. (The media’s collusion in some of this will be the subject of later posts this summer.)Put plain and simple: citizens are no longer the empowered authors of the public’s interest. The system is so constructed that they are necessary for votes, not guidance. We forget that the reason for representative democracy is not that we select the most powerful, but the most virtuous. It is to demonstrate excellence in public life long before they are elected. They are to be role models for civic refinement. And above all they are to be people of courage and conviction – the ability to state it as it is and to fight against those who presently cheapen the democratic experiment, even if it’s within their own party.The basic unit of politics is no longer the individual citizen galvanized to act in favour of the public good. It is instead the corporate body of political pros – the pollsters, the communications consultants, the bullies, the ad men, the compliant correspondent. In the concept of political representation, elected officials are meant to represent their constituents, but key groups – the leader’s office, those with access and influence, the party and its partisans – have claimed that turf. As mentioned, this is just dumb. But dumber still is the concept of citizens sitting back as tax-paying consumers, criticizing the politicians, in a practice that is much easier than taking the initiative themselves and living citizenship seriously.We have permitted self-interest to take the place of prominence in the present political system instead of the public interest. We dislike and distrust it when watching political parties function, saying things like, “Why can’t they just get along?” But then again, many of us spend our time just as blinded.Common sense tells us that when the public good suffers we are all threatened. There is a different kind of politics functioning in our communities today, one that seems to catch little media interest. It is discovering new methods of cooperation and accomplishment. We’ll search out some of these nuggets as the summer progresses, but first we must reject what we presently condone. Politicians must put their communities above their partisanship – that’s smart. And citizens must place the public good above their own – that’s even smarter.I have a theory. A political system based upon advancing the public interest will call out a greater sense of civic duty and patriotism than a system based on promoting private interests. Maybe we should check it out.