Have you ever felt powerless in politics? Do you feel like no one listens to your views and every election cycle is a slate of the same old candidates? I sure do, and I have a feeling many others feel this way as well.
It’s not always our fault. After all, the president has more than 300 million constituents. Our U.S. senators from Minnesota have more than five million, and even our U.S. House Representative for the 6th District, Tom Emmer, has more than 760,000 constituents. Can you imagine trying to listen to such a large amount of people giving you advice and opinions?
Let’s take Emmer’s situation for example. Say every constituent of Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District were to write him a letter, and he was to take just five minutes reading each letter nonstop, it would take a whopping 2,639 days to read them. Even with the congressional staff he surely has, adjusting this amount to a normal workday schedule would still be horrendously time consuming and unrealistic, considering all of the other commitments one has as a U.S. representative. Even with their best intentions, it would be almost impossible for our national representatives in Washington to hear all our concerns if they tried.
State politics is not much better. Despite the average State House legislator having about 41,000 constituents, these are still entire cities we are talking about. The short legislative session also doesn’t help to get anything done, as we’ve seen in the past few months, much less common-citizens’ concerns. Overall, this is getting depressing. Democracy is just way too big; one voice in a sea of thousands and millions is never going to get traction right?
There is a glimmer of hope though, and one the national news media never gets time to cover: local and city politics. How many of us can name the mayor of our town, or our city councilor for that matter? Like national politics, some of us can, but a large portion of us cannot. This lack of knowledge is an even worse problem with local politics because it affects us much more directly. The road being repaved or a school referendum is close to home or just feet away.
There is also an advantage to it. We can be much more involved. City council meetings are minutes rather than hours away. The councilors and mayors are our neighbors, maybe even people we know. This is why we need to start paying more attention to, and participating in, our local politics. When we look at too big of a picture, we miss a lot of the details. This includes many municipal officers who run unopposed every cycle. How can we have democracy if we unquestionably vote someone back into office again and again without any need for him or her to prove they are doing their best for us? How do we explain when city council meetings in towns of more than 10,000 have less than 30 people participating?
If we want to be heard, and we want politics to change for the better, look to our local cities and towns. Here, one’s voice is stronger, and our convictions are clear: we want what is best for ourselves and our neighbors. We are not just one person in a sea of millions; we are the person who lives right down the street or just outside of town. This isn’t random politicking hundreds or thousands of miles away; this is our towns and livelihoods at stake. There is a big movement now to “Buy Local.” I think we should start to “Vote Local,” too.
Connor Kockler is a current student at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School. He enjoys writing, politics, and the news, among other interests.
