Quote:
Originally Posted by SeijiSensei
I live in one of them. House Banking Chairman Barney Frank's district extends from here in the liberal Boston suburbs along a narrow corridor to the long-time coastal Democratic bastions of New Bedford and Fall River. Once home to proud industries like fishing and needlework that employed generations of immigrants, these communities now struggle to find a place for themselves in the 21st century. |
Hey, I walk over to the 4th district every day to do my grocery shopping! I live on the other side of the Charles River, though, in Ed Markey's district. I guess that makes us neighbors.
Warning: 
Bitch session ahead.
Spoiler for Thoughts on pointlessness of representative democracy:
When I was a kid, I used to go to the Town Meetings. My mom was a Town Meeting Member, which meant she represented the neighborhood, and I would walk around, door-to-door, with her to ask people for their vote at election time. The town precincts were only a few blocks, so we could stop by everybody's house on Saturday, then head out again on Sunday to try the folks who weren't home the first time. While I was in high school, the town voted to abolish the Town Meeting form of government. From about 50 members, representation went down to 9 (councilors). Now nobody bothers to walk door to door to ask for people's votes.
I knew at the time that I was watching my town give up on participatory democracy. People enjoy complaining about how they are being ill-treated by the politicians, but nobody wants to do the hard work of self-governance. For democracy to be anything other than an absolute sham, people have to be continuously engaged in the process; if they aren't involved in making the little decisions themselves (not just local politics, I mean in the workplace as well), they won't be prepared to make decisions at the national level. Instead people vote once every two to four years in a meaningless popularity poll.