After the rather dramatic election last year, I added a few more sites to my news feed...in the interest of getting exposure to different points of view.
Some of that has probably spurred my earlier posts. Anyways, I wanted to share a couple of them. It's probably no surprise that both of them criticize our current political establishment (whether Republican, Democrat, or just 'the Establishment' in general.)
It does seem like both parties are increasingly out of touch. Republicans don't get the attention Democrats do right now, since Trump won and all, but you can't forget that Trump's election was in many ways proof that the average Republican didn't really care about/support the things that the Republican Party stood for. For example, if Christian conservatives had had enough support on their own we probably would have seen Ted Cruz or some other Republican nominated. Although they seem to have tied themselves to Trump pretty closely since then, it's worth remembering that they didn't have the support on their own. (Which is why it's probably inevitable, like almost every mid-term election, that the current political leaders will alienate people as they pursue their agenda and we'll see a shift in power when the mid-terms roll around.)
Anyways. I sometimes wonder if this is just a delayed reaction to the increasingly tight grip both parties hold on their sources of power. I can't remember the last time I felt like I lived in a district where my vote really mattered. Indiana, for example, will pretty much always be red. Even when I lived in more 'blue' regions of the state. (Some of that is probably gerrymandering).
Illinois, on the other hand, is almost always blue. To a large degree because of Chicago. The politics of Chicago are very different from the politics of the rest of the state, but the rest of the state doesn't really have the population to change that. So we're pretty much always blue.
I know there is still some connection between constituent and representative, of course. And the parties pay close attention to the places that are up for grabs. They'll be monitoring the midterms and trying to interpret any shifts in power. Though as the 2016 election proves people rarely find a consensus for why something happened.
Which just adds to this sense that they're out of touch. Someone is always learning the 'wrong' lessons. (Except, of course, why is my opinion on what lessons to learn any better than anyone else's?)
Some of that has probably spurred my earlier posts. Anyways, I wanted to share a couple of them. It's probably no surprise that both of them criticize our current political establishment (whether Republican, Democrat, or just 'the Establishment' in general.)
It does seem like both parties are increasingly out of touch. Republicans don't get the attention Democrats do right now, since Trump won and all, but you can't forget that Trump's election was in many ways proof that the average Republican didn't really care about/support the things that the Republican Party stood for. For example, if Christian conservatives had had enough support on their own we probably would have seen Ted Cruz or some other Republican nominated. Although they seem to have tied themselves to Trump pretty closely since then, it's worth remembering that they didn't have the support on their own. (Which is why it's probably inevitable, like almost every mid-term election, that the current political leaders will alienate people as they pursue their agenda and we'll see a shift in power when the mid-terms roll around.)
Anyways. I sometimes wonder if this is just a delayed reaction to the increasingly tight grip both parties hold on their sources of power. I can't remember the last time I felt like I lived in a district where my vote really mattered. Indiana, for example, will pretty much always be red. Even when I lived in more 'blue' regions of the state. (Some of that is probably gerrymandering).
Illinois, on the other hand, is almost always blue. To a large degree because of Chicago. The politics of Chicago are very different from the politics of the rest of the state, but the rest of the state doesn't really have the population to change that. So we're pretty much always blue.
I know there is still some connection between constituent and representative, of course. And the parties pay close attention to the places that are up for grabs. They'll be monitoring the midterms and trying to interpret any shifts in power. Though as the 2016 election proves people rarely find a consensus for why something happened.
Which just adds to this sense that they're out of touch. Someone is always learning the 'wrong' lessons. (Except, of course, why is my opinion on what lessons to learn any better than anyone else's?)
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