Reformation Sunday, Politics, Blogs and will we be fooled again?
Today, October 31 is Reformation Sunday Alltheweb Clusty Google Teoma Yahoo Search.
Martin Luther ignited the reformation:
Luther dealt the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. That document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.
But Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel.
And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther’s estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith–the teaching that Christ’s own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.
Not a few blogs have stated their presidential preference. All well and good.
The Political Opportunity for Bloggers:
However, I believe the real need and opportunity for bloggers is to get involved in state and local races. Nathan Rothenberg noted that of the 435 house races Tuesday, only 42 were “competitive”. Locally, my State Senator, Fred Risser runs unopposed as does my State Representative, Therese Berceau. In addition, a number of county races feature just one candidate.
These non races mean that the political machines in either party are quite entrenched, which simply makes it more difficult for issues and competitive candidates to get attention.
Sucking the air out of the local races:
The national races, with their extraordinary amount of money, tend to get a greate deal of attention (and in fact, suck the air out of the local/state races). I believe this also creates very high expectations among local voters that a national change will have meaning here (I believe this is generally unrealistic. For example, will John Kerry do something to prop up SUV sales which might help the folks at GM Janesville? – Doubtful). Unfortunately, the more we rely on national political decisions vs. local officials, on issues such as education, health care, transportation and the environment, the greater the opportunity for special interests to have their way (with a corresponding loss of local influence). Education is a great example of this problem.
Where’s the dialogue?
We deprive ourselves of useful debate when there is no serious competition to incumbents. In addition, the onging concentration of legacy media means that many issues are thinly or no longer covered (I videotaped a Madison School Board Candidate debate last spring. One of the four major Madison TV stations was present, for a few minutes. The result was a 15 second spot on their evening news. I posted the results here.)
Local issues and races are, I believe, the essential political opportunity for bloggers.
Local political/issue blog examples:
South Dakota Senate: Daschle vs Thune
North Carolina Politics: Ed Cone
Madison Education Issues: A group blog www.schoolinfosystem.org
Act and think locally.
The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” seems rather appropriate.
