By Phil Tajitsu Nash
Published December 11th 2007 in Asian Week
There are only a few weeks left until the mostly rural white people of Iowa and New Hampshire kick off our quadrennial exercise in broken democracy at the Iowa caucuses (Jan. 3) and New Hampshire primary (Jan. 8).
Despite many efforts to rotate the opening primary states, shorten the campaign season, lessen the influence of big money donors, and increase participation, the two-party duopoly continues to support Democracy 1.0. The best democracy of the 1700s has long been eclipsed by Democracy 2.0, which is practiced in most other democracies of the world and includes instant-runoff voting, proportional representation, clean election monies replacing lobbyist monies, and greater reliance on issue campaigns than attack campaigns.
Although our political system is badly broken, I urge every reader to get involved so that Asian Pacific Americans can master its intricacies and work to change it. While one could argue that entrenched money interests such as military contractors and health insurance lobbyists still hold more power than they deserve, social change does not happen in a straight line or all at one time. As our legislatures start to reflect the full spectrum of America, we will see more laws that support the interests of the broad spectrum of Americans.
If, for some reason, you cannot get involved as a candidate, campaign staff member, volunteer or donor, be sure to get involved as a voter. Don’t start with the way the national issues have been defined by the national parties and the news media. Jot down your own thoughts on what you think is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.
In order to cast a reasoned vote, turn off your television set and spend a few hours going online to research the presidential candidates and state and local candidates in your area. When looking for data on the candidates, start with impartial sources such as Project Votesmart (votesmart.org), Wikipedia and Politics1 (politics1.com).
When looking for news and views that the mainstream media does not always cover, check with the Center for Public Integrity (publicintegrity.org), Demos (demos.org), Fairvote (fairvote.org) and Common Cause (commoncause.org).
To compare which candidate holds beliefs most similar to yours, enter “presidential candidates quiz” in your favorite browser and take the quizzes. You will be amazed, in some cases, with what you discover (and do not, under any circumstances, participate in polls that tell you who is “electable,” because all Asian Pacific American candidates would have been considered unelectable in 1789).
Finally, go beyond the 30-second fear-and-attack commercials and read the fine print. While most commercials will not blatantly lie to you, they skew the truth so much that they should be discounted.
For example, did you know that Republicans are saner than everyone else?
That’s the conclusion one could draw from a recent Gallup poll where 4,000 people interviewed since 2004 were asked to rate their own mental health. According to the Gallup write-up on Nov. 30, “Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance and education.”
Learn how to analyze data before placing it into a trusted place in your own belief system. In this Gallup poll, read carefully and notice that this is a “self-reported” poll. Are Republicans, the party that embraces what they call “family values,” going to publicly admit to a pollster on the phone that they have mental health issues? Is it possible that the results prove only that Republicans are more in denial about whether they have mental health issues? And even if this information was derived from studies done by researchers, more research would have to be done before proclaiming that either being a Republican promotes mental health or being mentally healthy means that one votes Republican.
Despite many efforts to rotate the opening primary states, shorten the campaign season, lessen the influence of big money donors, and increase participation, the two-party duopoly continues to support Democracy 1.0. The best democracy of the 1700s has long been eclipsed by Democracy 2.0, which is practiced in most other democracies of the world and includes instant-runoff voting, proportional representation, clean election monies replacing lobbyist monies, and greater reliance on issue campaigns than attack campaigns.
Although our political system is badly broken, I urge every reader to get involved so that Asian Pacific Americans can master its intricacies and work to change it. While one could argue that entrenched money interests such as military contractors and health insurance lobbyists still hold more power than they deserve, social change does not happen in a straight line or all at one time. As our legislatures start to reflect the full spectrum of America, we will see more laws that support the interests of the broad spectrum of Americans.
If, for some reason, you cannot get involved as a candidate, campaign staff member, volunteer or donor, be sure to get involved as a voter. Don’t start with the way the national issues have been defined by the national parties and the news media. Jot down your own thoughts on what you think is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.
In order to cast a reasoned vote, turn off your television set and spend a few hours going online to research the presidential candidates and state and local candidates in your area. When looking for data on the candidates, start with impartial sources such as Project Votesmart (votesmart.org), Wikipedia and Politics1 (politics1.com).
When looking for news and views that the mainstream media does not always cover, check with the Center for Public Integrity (publicintegrity.org), Demos (demos.org), Fairvote (fairvote.org) and Common Cause (commoncause.org).
To compare which candidate holds beliefs most similar to yours, enter “presidential candidates quiz” in your favorite browser and take the quizzes. You will be amazed, in some cases, with what you discover (and do not, under any circumstances, participate in polls that tell you who is “electable,” because all Asian Pacific American candidates would have been considered unelectable in 1789).
Finally, go beyond the 30-second fear-and-attack commercials and read the fine print. While most commercials will not blatantly lie to you, they skew the truth so much that they should be discounted.
For example, did you know that Republicans are saner than everyone else?
That’s the conclusion one could draw from a recent Gallup poll where 4,000 people interviewed since 2004 were asked to rate their own mental health. According to the Gallup write-up on Nov. 30, “Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance and education.”
Learn how to analyze data before placing it into a trusted place in your own belief system. In this Gallup poll, read carefully and notice that this is a “self-reported” poll. Are Republicans, the party that embraces what they call “family values,” going to publicly admit to a pollster on the phone that they have mental health issues? Is it possible that the results prove only that Republicans are more in denial about whether they have mental health issues? And even if this information was derived from studies done by researchers, more research would have to be done before proclaiming that either being a Republican promotes mental health or being mentally healthy means that one votes Republican.