Dictatorship of the Minority

Christmas is almost here but I would rather rant about the dictatorship of the minority than coo about the Nativity. At least for today.

The obvious violation of will is that once again the popular vote is thwarted by an anachronistic mechanism (the Electoral College). Two and half million people are not a small margin to be denied.

But the far more malevolent crime is that of legislative gerrymandering done by both sides, yet taken to new lows by the efficiency of the Republican Party.

Not only are Democrat voters a majority, but also if the distribution of our voting districts were not so torturously configured to give advantage to Republicans, the House and Senate would look quite different now. Legislative control, at both the state and federal level, would be far more even and elegantly mixed were voting districts configured by population patterns rather than political ones.

The benefit of a healthy two-party (or more) system is that collaboration breeds innovation as well as greater perspective. Monopolies and dictatorships, on the other hand, give birth to solipsism within the body politic and that leads to atrophy and self-destruction. Eventually, after horrific pain and suffering inflicted upon a majority of the population, such governments fall in on themselves. The decay created cripples multiple future generations even after recovery.

We have been heading along this path for quite some time and the dangers and explosions awaiting us over the next few years are difficult to name or know, but the sense of dread is building. I believe that among the populace there is a desire and will to find another way, and yet it is also clear that those in high office in states and federal government, seem driven more by the lust for personal power and control than common good.

The vibrancy of our two-party system aimed at delivering the common good has devolved into a predator’s paradise in which the big dogs eat the little ones for personal gain and satisfaction. Is this perhaps the end result of Capitalism, the economy as amebae absorbing everything it encounters into itself?

What would Jesus do in this situation? Organize!

Somehow we must organize across political, economic, ethnic, racial, and gender divides to address the common enemy and its forces stacked against us. By organizing across the boundaries intended to divide us, we will grow and strengthen and generate vitality. We need to help one another perceive that our destinies are intertwined, not parallel tracks. So long as we see ourselves as insulated from one another, or in competition for scarce resources instead of in collaboration to create abundance, we will be fodder for the whims and selfish interests of those in power.

The most important thing we can do right now, on the precipice of this dangerous time, is to build relationships with people on the other side of those boundaries. One relationship at a time, that’s how we will do it.