I realized when I was looking over yesterday’s blog, prior to publishing it that, that its header could be read two ways—both about our general tendency to preserve the status quo (even when better alternatives are widely known about) or as a criticism of my own actions.
I considered changing it, because I normally aim for clarity—as being fundamental to good writing—but then decided that I rather liked the joke being on me. Somehow it seemed to go with that magnificent Don Quixote illustration.
My basic point is that U.S. society seems remarkably resistant to structural change even when both the defect and the solution are widely known about.
A case in point is gerrymandering. It is clearly the antithesis of democracy that districts should be fixed so that, in effect, they belong to one party—yet gerrymandering continues apace. Yes, I know that both parties are guilty of it, but that doesn’t mean it should be allowed to continue. Yet it does.
If memory serves, without blatant gerrymandering during the last re-districting, the House of Representatives would have gone to the Democrats after the last elections—and by 1.5 million votes at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment