The Problem with Representative Democracy is the Lack of a Representation
I was listening KCRW’s Left, Right and Center podcast last weekend and they had a guest on who was the writer of this NY Times Op-Ed. Needless to say, article struck a nerve with me and at the same time tapped into something that I hadn’t known was weighing on me.
“Ordinary People Who Are Doing Politics the Wrong Way”
The writer, Eitan Hersh focused the Op-Ed around his theory of political hobbyism.
“[Political hobbyists] desperately want to do something, but not something that is boring, demanding or slow. Political hobbyists want easy ways to register theirs feelings.”
Oh, it gets better…apparently, political hobbyists are those who:
- Argue online with people they don’t know
- Overly consumes news (specifically cable news)
- Repeatedly signs/shares online petitions
- Overshares the news — especially news that “feels good” (potentially wrong information, things that “embarrass” the “other side”, etc)
- Finds truth in numbers aka the “data junkie”
The article even goes on to say…
“The result of this is political engagement that takes the form of partisan fandom…”
OK, anyone that knows me, knows my blood pressure is through the roof at this point. (Also, that’s an insult to fandoms.) I’m going to reserve my comments for the moment though.
“Not All Activism is Political Hobbyism”
Apparently, according to Hersh, a Black Lives Matter protest or even the spontaneous airport protests are actual forms of activism. The reason being because they have “clear goals and urgent demands”.
Hersh also discusses town hall meetings but doesn’t specifically critique them as political hobbyism, but doesn’t call them actual forms of activism either.
(I have to add here: how the !#*$ do you think the Black Lives Matter movement and the airport protests happened?!?!)
So, what’s the problem?
Well, according to the article…
“The problem is that hobbyism is replacing other forms of participation, like local organizing, supporting party organizations, neighbor-to-neighbor persuasion, even voting in midterm elections.”
“Cheap participation reflects a troubling infirmity in how partisans of both parties in engage in politics.”
Ok, so what’s the solution?
The Op-Ed offers little to no solutions to fix this so-called problem, so in true millennial fashion, I look to Twitter…
The basis for the rest of this “solutions” thread is: join a political party.
- Join a political party to run for office (one day) or something similar.
- Join a political party to build “in-person” connections and networks.
*Deep breath* Let’s unpack this for a moment…
First, I want to say — everything we know, thought we knew, etc has 100% changed during and since the 2016 election. “Tried and true” ways of doing things, likely are no longer the most effective anymore and vice versa.
“The people who are politically engaged online are the same type of people who are active offline.” (Ariadne Vromen)
Digital Citizenship, not “Political Hobbyism”
Digital citizenship is the to conceptualization of “how citizens negotiate and use the huge amount of political information and opportunities available online”.
Let’s look at the studies (because contrary to Hersh’s comment on the podcast, there is proof that the smallest social media message can make a huge impact):
A study published in Nature called “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization”, analyzes the effects of using a simple “social” Facebook message on the 2010 midterm elections.
- The data “suggest that the Facebook social message increased turnout directly by about 60,000 voters and indirectly through social contagion by another 280,000 voters, for a total of 340,000 additional votes”.
- So, in context: with the rising turnout for midterm elections, “340,000 additional votes attributed to Facebook messages represents 0.14% of the voting age population of about 236 million in 2010…. It is possible that more of the 0.60% growth in turnout between 2006 and 2010 might have been caused by a single message on Facebook.”
- The conclusion is: online political mobilization works. “It induces political self-expression, but it also induces information gathering and real, validated voter turnout. Social mobilization in online networks is significantly more effective than informational mobilization alone.”
This from Ariadne Vromen’s book, “Digital Citizenship and Political Engagement” sums it up nicely:
“While citizens experience and use social media individually — that is they do not need to go to a collective venue or arena to go online — they also introduce a new form of everyday individualized collective action through the networking and sharing elements to these media.”
“Both political actors and citizens have moulded social media into their lives to overcome the digital divide, to engage new supporters and to discursively shape social change processes”
Political Parties
I’m going to just say “get involved in politics” vs “join a political party”, because otherwise it essentially excludes millennials (+40% of the electorate). Millennials want a value based, transpartisan government and are not focused on party affiliations.
Run For Something…
First, let’s start with EMILY’s List — as of 6/29 had +15,000 women contact them about running in 2018, compared to 920 for the whole 2016 cycle. That’s a roughly a 1700% increase (yes, that’s two zeros).
Second, there’s been 489 new Democratic candidates for the House registered for the 2018 election. At the same point in election cycle over the last four, there were 179 candidates registered on average. That’s a 273% increase. (The Hill)
Make “In-Person” Connections…
Two Words: Indivisible Movement
(Brian Schatz, by the way is a United States Senator from Hawaii)
Here’s some facts, just on Indivisible alone…
- 5,983 groups nationwide
- There’s at least 2 in every. single. congressional. district.
In addition to the direct actions most people see (like the +161 events on Tuesday, 7/18 alone for healthcare), majority of groups hold regular meetings, planning sessions, have their own websites, social media strategies, etc.
Guess how the Indivisible Movement started? Twitter + a Google Doc
So, did this strike a nerve with me?
Because it reletigates the 2016 election and it aims to delegitimize millennials participation in our democracy. The larger issue with our democracy right now, is the lack of representation. Here are the statistics of just a few of the “categories” of people who are underrepresented.
- 51% of our population are women; only 19.6% of Congress are women
- 2 states have never sent a woman to Congress; yet (not surprisingly) California has sent 41

- 12% of the adult population identifies as a sexual minority
- There’s 1 US Senator that identifies as LGBTQ and 6 members of the House of Representatives (all of which are Democrats) — that’s 1.3% of Congress
- The largest living generation — 24% (75.4M) of the population
- In 2016, they made up 31% of the electorate, as did the baby boomers (millennials surpassed baby boomers in 2017 as the largest portion of the electorate)
- Baby boomers outnumber millennials 50:1 in Congress currently
- 9 out of 13 millennial members of Congress are Republicans; despite the fact that 55% of millennials identify as a Democrat or leans Democrat

As I fall into each one of these categories, it’s suffice to say I am seriously underrepresented in Congress — as our millions of others, as this is just a small fraction of those who are underrepresented. Thus diminishing a new way of participating in our democracy, when obviously the old ways have not been working, is diminishing the value of those who are underrepresented in government’s value in society.
