Anne Lamott, Politics and the Future of Democracy

I was listening to liberal Christian author Anne Lamott give a speech on NPR this weekend. One of her many fine points was saying that the two greatest ideas that America gave the world was modern democracy and the separation of church and state. This insightful commentary came led me to some further thoughts on American democracy and the future...

America gave these two things to the world, and now, many places in the world have advanced those ideas to new levels. America has responded by trying to hold onto their old styles of these two ideas instead of embracing their advances. Why? I think largely because in the American narrative, we've convinced ourselves that our way is the always the best.

So we hold onto outdated American democratic ideas like "pork" amendments on legislation or gerrymandering of congressional districts, because that's "the way we've always done it." And I can't even begin to complain about all the glitches in an outdated campaign system, from financing to disenfranchisement to the electoral college. Our system is hardly a fair democratic system, instead it is a system balanced heavily in favor of the rich, white, and powerful men in America.

Is there no shame that third-world countries in Africa and Asia have fairer elections than we do? Do we realize that experts are estimating that $1 billion dollars will be given to presidential candidates for 2008 election? Only a handful of states have open primaries where you can vote for anybody and besides, primaries amount to a party-style electoral college system.

Aside from the stupidity of the electoral college, most countries have this little thing called a run-off election. Why can't our elections be held over two or three days, or be a national holiday like other countries make it? I was just mulling over these ideas in light of France's election. They had 4 canidates... far right 10%, right 30%, center 18%, left 25%. so the top two get to have their run-off election and try to build a consensus with those who didn't vote for them.

To sum up, America is stuck in our traditional ways. Democracy and freedom have advanced in other countries, but we are the arrogant ones who think that because we created it, our current system is still the right way to do it.

This little rant didn't even touch on Lamott's second point about the serparation of Church and state. There are many in America who hold onto the idea of a "return" to a nation legislated by Christians for Christians in what has become the most diverse country in the world. They will have to wait for a rant from me until next time.