Too Good At Democracy?

It's been said before that perhaps wanting to be a political leader should disqualify you from ever actually being one. That's because your wanting power over me makes me that much more suspicious of you in the first place. Who does power attract, and what does power do to them when they get it? The cliche that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely assumes that those who attain power weren't already corrupt. That being corrupt, morally, intellectually, or financially, isn't how you get power in the first place.

The problem is that the worse you would be at governing, the better you can be at getting elected.

What do we do when the people who do politics for a living get so good at it that it renders the democracy non-functional? Political professionals know our psychology, they know how our brains work, they know marketing, hell, they know what colour tie to wear to make us trust them more than the other guy. They know how to poll to get the result they want, how to work within laws to slant courts, influence voter turn out, and gerrymander districts. They target so specific a demographic that they know what word to repeat to get the emotional reaction they want.

Face it, the game is so well played by the players, that we, the voters, are at the disadvantage. The point of manipulation is that if it is working on you, you don't know it.

In professional hockey the goaltenders are now so good at stopping the puck, are so hard to beat, that the league may make the nets bigger to give the shooters more of a chance. The players are so good at what they do you have to change the rules to make to make it a meaningful contest. Something worth cheering for rather than tuning out.

Sports leagues seem able to find neutral referees and umpires to call their games - you don't get to umpire a Yankees' game if you work for the Yankees, even if they are paying you through a third party fake Society for the Betterment of the Red Sox charity front. Fans can stop watching, but voters need to vote, because somebody is going to form government. It's just that it will either be with or without your voice.

I can't out spend the a billionaire on campaign ads, but for all his or her money he or she only gets one vote. The rest of us out number them and can out vote them, but only if we don't let them buy our votes. Only if we don't respond just to ads, stop being emotional voters, vote with our head as much as our gut, support independent media, participate not just in protests, but in the process, think critically about our own culture about what we're told, pause and count to ten before casting that vote, and God's sake, don't base it on what colour a candidate's tie is.