Ignorance is Bliss

 Control is powerful. People must have control, because there is chaos without it. This is the obvious reason for government. This is how people associate themselves with a ruling entity and its regional jurisdiction. By being a part of this social structure, people have a sense of place. Democracy is what gives people the illusion of power in government. By people electing politicians, they do have a vote in who makes policy decisions. However only the person who is elected has any power to make decisions. This person can easily manipulate the political structure by campaigning on certain policies and actually enacting opposite policies while in office. It’s a system based on trust. Although it seems as though that trust has been broken. With resistance between the two major political parties and a split in power between the congressional houses there is no way to pass legislation. This makes political gridlock an extreme problem. With a split in government policy making, even if politicians are truthfully working to help the people they represent, (the ideal form of a republic), the opposing party will just shoot down whatever bill is created.  It seems almost as though there is no longer a way to reform the government. This is a major problem because people and society are always changing, therefore government (the structure that holds society in place), must also adapt to these changes. This is known as gradualism and has helped the United States remain stable for 238 years. It has helped the English last for a good deal longer than that. However, the world changes. The United States was created because Great Britain did not adapt to the the colonists society. In the U.S. there has already been a civil war, and there are secession talks from states of Washington and Oregon to become a new country with western Canada. Texas seems to threaten secession every Tuesday. People hold separate ideas. The belief that one federal government can work for the good of 308,000,000 people who all have freedom of expression is irrational. Which is the point of federalism, to provide local governments based on the needs of regional preference. The problem once again becomes the gridlock when all these regions are are represented in Washington. Nobody agrees on anything, and nothing gets passed. Even in the days when they could pass legislation, it was always out of compromise. People truly have little say in the government, but somehow the bureaucracy has functioned since the revolutionary period. By giving people the belief that they have value to the government, they tend to be more complacent with government decisions. The only real power of the people is to elect another candidate in four years. But that's not a lot of power if there are two parties with no intention of helping the people.