Don Wooten: "And another thing ..." Democracy requires participation

With the election just two months away, with the national debt topping 40 trillion, with Congressional heroism in short supply, and with the president focused on monuments to himself, it's definitely politician-bashing time. I know it looks bad. It's hard to imagine that anyone might have a kind word to say for anyone in political office just now, but I'm going to try. After all, I was in the political minor leagues (Springfield) for a while and enjoyed the friendship of some people in the majors (Washington), so I am in a position to be understanding, if not quite forgiving. Our democracy is not a pretty sight just now. Congress has largely ceased to function. It's not a deliberative body in which members seek to reach a reasonable compromise, but rather one in which power politics predominates. The process has been seriously undermined by an obvious unwillingness to make unpleasant decisions. Why can't our representatives show more courage? The first thing to remember in all this is that these are people we elected. As outrageous as it may seem, they actually reflect the public mind. If they didn't, they wouldn't be in office. The root of the problem truly is the ballot box. In the past, it was an axiom of public life that the public was better served than it deserved to be. That's no longer true. The passion, caprice, and primal instincts of the voter are, for the most part, accurately reflected in legislative councils. Americans have been voting their dreams, prejudices, and wishes and the people they put in office are having a hard time reconciling that to reality. Since 1980, we have been living through systemic changes. State and local party structure has weakened. The tax give-away of 1981, with the top rate cut from 70% to 28%, was "voodoo economics" (in George Bush's memorable phrase) and never had a chance of working in the real world.