Open Left

The Public Square (0.00 / 0)

Interesting thoughts.  I'm of the mind that we're coming up on a social and economic shift that will realign toward local spaces and community and will lead to a resurgence in local communities and human connection--i.e. we're actually going to know our neighbors again, though the specific definition of "neighbor" will likely become more geographically broad and diverse.

We're going to move away from globalization and toward localization.  Which means that politics will be effected.  It leads to the question, perhaps, of whether or not we will start to become more focused on local representation as well as the question of whether or not local representation will start to gain more power.  I wonder if we might see a bit of a shift away from federalized power toward a more localized concentration of power--not just on the state levels, but on the county and city levels.

It might also raise the question of whether or not we'll see a considerable expansion of the House in the next decade or two.  It won't be easy to upend the status quo, but if there is a significant and influential localization movement, there could be a corollary movement for tightened, more localized federal representation, leading to a significant expansion of the 435 House seats.

In other words, I think you may be on to something with the notion of 21st century politics being a bit like 19th century politics.  Sounds pretty good to me.

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by: Joel Caris @ Mon Jun 23, 2008 at 17:16:37 PM CDT