Democracy in the US

I think that in the US we are very proud of this idea of
Democracy. It is a focal point for us but I don't think
it's all that well thought out. I think that most people
would say that democracy is just one thing and that
it's what we have. Well, democracy is a kind of an idea.
True it's a system – and a system of government – but
then – it really shouldn't be thought of as something that
is static or fixed – because almost all systems change
over time. So I don't think we could think of it as something
that doesn't need thought and analysis and improvement.

To me one of the really important things about democracy
is that everyone's “voice” should be heard – and that is
an idea that is captured in our system of voting. But I
think that it should be more than that. People's voices
should be heard – even when they don't have that much
to say – because it is a source for new and better ideas
that can improve how we do things and our way of life in
general.

Now – today in our country we have this system that is
mainly based on two parties and people who participate
in these parties can often express their ideas through
this system. The way I see it is there are a few things
wrong with this process. First, these parties have
developed to represent mostly two main groups of
interest which are primarily labor and management.
These are the two big opposing points of view and
our political process has been caught up in these
differing perspectives. One of the problems we have
right now is that with in both of these parties we have
people that are ideologues. What this means is that
they have become so entrenched in their perspectives
of what is right and wrong – that they are very unwilling
to consider other ideas and are very unwilling to compromise.
Quite frequently these ideologues are able to gain everyone's
attention and therefore issues become framed around their
perspectives. And this has become a huge problem, because
it has made finding practical solutions to real problems very
hard. It might be better if these parties were totally random -
so that some issues of these opposing perspectives could
be worked out at a more grass roots level – and not reach
the level to which they interfere with how our government
actually works.



Practically, how can we get around this big problem that we have
now – to a situation in which more people can express
their views in various ways and yet we can easily get
through the problem of ending up with opposition
that can not be resolved?

First, in my opinion this is something that is related to
the issues now facing us in relation to health care. The
reason I say that is that – on a one to one basis the
issue of health care is related to two key processes.
First – the patient needs to be able to express what
is going so that an effective remedy can be found.
Second the health care provider needs to be able
to hear and work with this information in such a
way that the problems will be effectively addressed.

Therefore, in my opinion not only is our current
difficulties with resolving health care related to health
in the sense of patient – to health care provider – but
I believe it is also related to how we can understand
and explore ways of achieving a better system of
democracy and relating that in fact to improvements
in our system of government in general.

These ideas are very important for our future. Even
if I could express a simple formula – which there in
fact may be, it is very important for everyone involved
- which is everyone - to work on finding this answer
together – and since we are all clearly involved with
this we should all be motivated to finding a reasonable
and effective answer to it.