Another thing I talked about on the radio last night was my increasing peevishness that we call these “mid-term elections,” which underlines our unhealthy national obsession with national politics over local, and presidential politics über alles.
And this morning, I was treated to another bit of evidence of the problem:
“Look, state legislatures are hilarious. There’s only one problem,” the HBO host began. “Increasingly, they’re the places where most legislation is actually taking place.”
While the U.S. Congress has only passed 185 laws this session, the satirist pointed out that state houses have passed over 24,000 bills.
Oliver then launched into an extended lecture on the influence of the local lawmakers on issues from abortion rights to environmental policy to gun control.
One additional player is the notorious “conservative bill mill,” the American Legislative Exchange Council….
Notice anything odd about that piece? Yeah, it’s the implied presumption that government should not be going on on the state level, that there’s something sneaky and nefarious about that.
I’ll set aside the considerations of ALEC for another time. My point here is to say that yes, we do have local and state governments, and guess what? We’re supposed to.
But Mr. Oliver is right about one thing. Too often, “Americans aren’t watching.” That’s because we allow our views of politics to be formed by Mr. Oliver, and Jon Stewart, and CNN and MSNBC and the rest, and all they tell us about is national politics. Obsessively and excessively.
This has been a problem my whole life. I can still remember when I came out of college believing that national politics was what was important, and the rest was a distraction. It took me awhile — and some time covering state and local governments — to be disabused of that simplistic notion.
Unfortunately, I worry that too many still see the national as all that matters. And they’re wrong.
Oh, and it’s not state governments’ fault that you’re not watching. That’s your fault.
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OK, now I’ve taken the time to actually LISTEN to the 17-minute video — while going through email and doing other stuff — and I want to walk this back slightly.
I want to commend Mr. Oliver for urging his viewers to care about elections for state legislatures. I’m in complete agreement with him on that.
I still don’t like the “… because they’re all a load of idiots” reason for caring. Or, for that matter, his “unless you are ideologically correct as I define it, you’re not only an idiot but evil” shtick. But then, he’s an entertainer and I’m not, and this is what his audience likes.
If he can, by indulging them in their desire to sneer, cause them to shift some of their attention from the meaningless question of which party controls Congress to their state houses, he will have made them slightly better citizens.
Of all the things he sneered at, I most enjoyed the bit where he mocked the hyperventilating about partisan control on the national level. I’m with him there…