US Midterm Elections: did anyone win?
Yes, personally I’m happy that many young, diverse and increasingly female democrats were elected to the house of representatives. They represent much better my values and the world I believe in.
However, for us as a society, as a “system” comprising ALL people of ALL perspectives and persuasions who must come to agreement on how to live together, how to educate, feed, fuel and govern ourselves… this is no success. This may even be a failure.
We continue the road to polarisation. For all these races “won” anywhere between 35 and 49% of those who voted feel unrepresented. The discourse (without even considering the violent, racist, misogynistic language of the worst case) is one of conflict and power: “winning” “taking control” “holding on to”…
This system we are using will only bring us further down this road. A 2 party, election based and therefore “personality-centered” “representative” democracy in which huge amounts of money and huge concentration of power are combined, will only lead us to more conflict, more stagnation, more disenfranchisement and disillusionment as the real issues are never resolved in a way which we all can live with, because the real discussions and dialogue is simply not occuring.
In my view, we need a serious review and overhaul of our governing systems (in the US, but not only). We need to recreate systems, adapted to our times, today’s technology and today’s people, which enable us all to dialogue, to learn to know eachother, respect eachother’s differences, build trust and understanding, and which makes each of us both empowered to and responsible for governing our own communities, cities and countries. It is not a pipe dream. It is a necessity. I’m going for it. Who’s in?