Welcome to the Machine

Welcome to the Machine

I started this blog to explore the question of the role of the ordinary person in politics in America. The main question in my mind being does the ordinary person matter at all anymore? In a country which touts itself as the beacon for democracy and democratic participation is the ordinary person's political voice truly relevant or even needed?

Of course my ruminations were primarily subjective and based on my own impressions and experiences. I am an ordinary person, after all, and am as much a subject of my explorations as I am the observer.

I am coming to the conclusion pretty quickly that the ordinary person is politically powerless and without influence in this society. Now I am not sure how exceptional that conclusion is—how earth shattering the news given that I am probably only stating what is probably obvious to most people. The idea that America is the best democracy money can buy where those with most money have the best (sometimes the only) access to politicians and policymakers is a cliche after all.

So I am at a crossroads right now on whether or not to continue this blog. After all, if the ordinary person is irrelevant, what on earth can one blogger do about it? What more can I say and observe about the powerlessness of the ordinary person without sounding like a scold or a broken record week in and week out?

I’ve also started to explore the reform movement community. Those who are involved in electoral reform and other activist activities of some sort to explore the issue of who is doing something to make the average person and ordinary voter relevant again. While the first few months were heady and inspiring in discovering new organizations and meeting new people and activists in person and online, I quickly discovered that the reform community is rife with its own divisions on which types of reform are favored by which group, and my endorsement of one group over the other briefly had me caught in a particularly nasty and partisan bickering going on in the Internet (which is instigated more by one side than the other).

I thought to myself: who needs this crap? I started this blog to have fun and to learn and educate myself about politics and activism. I didn’t start it to instigate fights or to choose sides and if I happened to choose a side, to make enemies because of it. I had the illusion that just because we were all outsiders to the system and powerless, that there would be solidarity and a feeling of common purpose. Turned out I was wrong.

In any case, this is not a goodbye letter. I am just feeling a little bummed out and will be doing some deep thinking on which direction to take this blog, given what I have found out for myself on the state of politics and activism for the ordinary person. You can still catch me making posts over at Mirror on America and perhaps will post something here once in a while. In the meantime, I have to take a little break to find a way to make this blog a fun and worthwhile activity again.