Humans seem to understand their world by labeling and categorizing everything. Take the animal kingdom. There are mammals, which are defined with certain characteristics. They are the norm. Then, there are marsupials — not quite up to standard (which is us), but still mammals; then, there is the platypus, definitely not up to standard, and not quite a mammal. Sort of like men (the standard), women (the “other,” as Simone de Beauvoir wrote in “The Second Sex”), and then there are the transgender.
I believe one underlying cause of political and social division is this penchant for labeling people. Another is the binary thinking that categorizes everything as good or bad, normal or abnormal, white or black, without leaving room for non-conformity. In trying to categorize everything as one or the other, there is no room for the individuality of people, and it poisons the political systems.
The other thing that poisons the political system is the party control over the political process, from elections to the organization of legislatures. The states have given the two major parties enormous power over deciding who the candidates will be through the separate caucuses and primary ballots. They campaign to a minority of the population who have registered as members of their party, ignoring the rest of their potential constituency.
Once the final ballot is printed, there must be one candidate, and no more, belonging to each party, so essentially, voters are voting not for a person but for a party. Once elected, the winner is more beholden to his party than to his constituency.
Congress is set up so that the political parties, not the representatives collectively, decide chairmanships and committee assignments, with more regard to the wishes of the party than to the expertise of the people. If the parties did not control the system, and representatives were elected without party labels on their ballots, I think that, instead of having party caucuses, caucuses would be formed on the basis on issues, and the caucuses would all be different groupings, so that individual state and local interest and not party dogma would rule.
The other critical factor in good government is good people. People of integrity scarcely need governing. No amount of laws or police can govern people with no moral compass. When brute force alone can control an unruly population, authoritarian dictatorship takes over. If we want democracy, we must be worthy of it.
Judith Truesdell is a resident of Shelburne.