Last night I went to a focus group that seemed to have something to do with politics. First we had to complete a survey of our impressions of various candidates, both real and hypothetical. Then we were shown a series of images, ranging a benign image of the capitol building in Salem to emotionally charged images of pro and anti choice protests, same sex marriage and the NSA.
The group was comprised entirely of Portlanders, so unsurprisingly, we all leaned to the left politically and the potentially most divisive images raised very little comment. That was all well and good, even if it did surprise our British facilitator.
The kind of comments that raised my hackles were things like “People make decisions without enough information. After all, I’m not very political” and my favorite, “the government should have to make the budget open to the public the way corporations do.” After being told that a particular issue on the table was the responsibility of a federal agency and we were talking about state and local government, one person responded, “State, local, federal, they’re all the same.” Arrrggghhhh!
There were two babblers in the group who were content to ramble on regardless of whether there was a question on the table or if someone else was speaking. That made it hard for me to tell whether any one else shared my horror or not.
It has been years since I did any work in civics education. And, I must admit that the last mayoral election left me very burnt out on local politics (I still think Eileen Brady and Steve Novick would have made a dream team). But, last night’s discussion riled me up in a way that made me want to shift gears completely and devote my life to restoring civics education in the public schools.
Sadly, when I woke up this morning the fire in my belly had cooled. I still think civics education is critical to an effective democracy (and yes, I know we are technically a republic, nevertheless). And I think ignorance is largely to blame for the mess that is the US political system. It is why my focus has always been local politics. It is much easier to make a difference at the local level.
I look forward to the day when I have overcome my burn-out and I am ready to wade back into the sphere of public policy. I hope it comes soon because clearly there is a lot of work to be done.