75% of US citizens politically active

What would it take for Americans to feel like they are an integral part of the United States government?

Few Americans vote in presidential elections. Even fewer citizens vote in nonpresidential elections. And an abysmally few voters show up for primary races. How many citizens do you know, that are not involved in politics for their job, who participate in the democratic system in some way other than voting? I don’t know many. I volunteered to work at a phone bank for 3 hours during the 2004 presidential election, and I was told I was one of 1% of American who do so! Clearly, there is a problem when the government is “for the people” and “by the people” but so few people participate in the government.

Imagine the United States if 75% of the population voted in every election, contacted its national and state representatives on a monthly basis, worked with their political party year-round, and was informed on the issues. What if 75% of the population felt their voice mattered to in the government and that they had the power to effect change in out political system?

What would it take to make this a reality? What would make myself and others feel it’s worth the time to learn about current issues? What would make me learn how our Democracy works? What would it take for me to ask questions, read, and attend meetings to learn how my city, state, and country are run?

Health care costs so high I can hardly afford them? Poorly educated high school “graduates”? A President lying to the American people (or being unforgivably negligent at best) to gain their support for preemptively invading another country for the first time in US history? EU investigations into US torture charges? A President calling for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans during an unprecedented national deficit? Illegal eavesdropping on US citizen’s international and domestic calls? Government surveillance of my Internet activity? Hundreds of school busses flooded into a parking lot while thousands of citizen are stranded in the wake of a national disaster?

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am tired of feeling helpless while so many important issues are being decided on. I am tired of complaining to my friends about this weeks top news stories. I am tired of feeling like politicians are bad people and politics corrupts good people. I am so sick of feeling like all these issues are so complicated that I don’t have the time to understand them. I am tired of feeling that there is so much I don’t know, that I can’t have a valid opinion.

It is not right that as a college educated citizen, the issues of my country are too complicated for me to understand without spending all of my free time researching them. It’s not right that even if I do have a strong opinion about something, I feel helpless to do anything about it. Is writing a letter to my representative going to help? What about demonstrating downtown? What does that really do?

If I struggle with these frustrations and problems, then others also must. If I can find a personal solution for them, then maybe I can find solutions that help other people as well. What if 75% of the US population voted in every election, contacted its national and state representatives on a monthly basis, worked with their political party year-round, and was informed on major issues.

Warrantless searches: foreign calls, domestic calls, and Internet activity

Warrantless Wiretapping

First the Bush administration kept the NSA's warrantless surveillance program secret. Then, it said the program only affected international calls. Now word is coming out that Bush authorized NSA spying on domestic calls, AND there is at least one lawsuit claiming the NSA is monitoring Internet activity as well. Additionally, on December 19 at a White House briefing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also referenced “many operational aspects” of the eavesdropping program “that have still not been disclosed.”

Based on the Bush administration’s record, Americans should be outraged at the liberties Bush has taken with Executive Power, the brashness with which he has refused to ask Congress permission for such power (when they would have undoubtedly given it to him), and continues to hide additional secret programs with questionable legality from Congress and U.S. citizens.

Republicans correctly criticized Clinton for being a poor role model for the country by having extra-marital affairs. Even worse, we now have a President who takes without asking permission, ignores laws when they don’t suit him, and shows no remorse or apology.

Imagine if CEOs acted this way: embezzling profits, changing financial statements, and denying everything. Oh, that’s happening (a la Enron). Imagine if children behaved in such a manner: cheating on exams, ignoring classroom and school rules, and flatly denying any wrongdoing. Visit a public high school, and you will be horrified by the behavior.

Bush’s cavalier attitude towards running national security abroad (Iraq) has been in question. Now we have to worry about security on our own soil. While many Americans are willing to sacrifice some privacy for increased security, Bush can no longer expect us to trust that he knows where the proper balance is? When we trusted his ability to respond in a time of crisis, he finished reading a children’s book to an elementary school class before reacting to the attack of the twin towers. When we trusted his judgment on invading Iraq, it turns out there was no imminent attack on the US planned and there was no hard evidence that Saddam has WMD’s. When we trusted him to supervise the nation building of Iraq, he sent far to few troops. When we trusted his judgment to appoint competent leaders to high-ranking positions, he chose Brown to lead FEMA. When we trusted him to interrogate charged terrorists, he authorized torture at Guantanamo and the EU reprimands the US’s human rights record. We trust that he will make appropriate decisions to defend US citizens at home, and he authorized illegal eavesdropping and then lies to us about it. Not only that, his Attorney General tell us there are more activities that we still do not know about.

So he’s eavesdropping on suspicious foreign calls. That affects terrorists, Mideast natives, journalists and businessmen, but not me. Oh, he’s now collecting information on domestic phone calls. That affects me. Wait a minute, Newsweek is reporting that Mark Klein, a 22 year AT&T veteran “witnessed the construction of a ‘secret room’ for the NSA at AT&T’s San Francisco headquarter in early 2003.” Further, he then “discovered that cables from the secret room were tapping into massive volumes of Internet communication” and he “discovered similar operations in other cities on the West Coast, and… the NSA had created the capability of ‘vacuum-cleaner surveillance’ of all data crossing the Internet.” Whooow! That really affects me. Someone could be taping my AT&T, Bellsouth, and Verizon calls AND surveilling my Internet activity (email, what news I read, Internet phone calls, books I buy, website I visit…). This is way out of control!!!

What other possible NSA programs could Bush have authorized that we don’t know about?