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In Yngvesson's article she raises the point of the amount of power we hand to the people we allow to practice as judges, lawyers, and lawmakers. The people in control of this power are essentially the people who, on a daily basis, declare what is right and what is wrong. She mentions the words "official" and "popular," as in, these people often collectively make the popular opinions into official laws.
This concept reminded me of a class I took with Travis Vande Berg last semester. In his class we discussed the rise of evangelists to power in America. We examined how they had slowly grown in power through a rise in activity targeted towards local politics. They have used the American system to gradually place all of their values into codified laws. They certainly haven't entirely succeeded, but with things like Proposition 8 passing in California, they certainly aren't fading away anytime soon.
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That is what's happening in the small towns around me at home also. It's fascinating how controlling that group is. I went to a town meeting (public obviously) and they gave such bad looks and were so extremely unwelcoming I nearly left. They are a "club" of sorts, only they aren't controlling the playground any more, they are making real laws in our community. This is something to pay attention to, as more people are "too busy" to be involved in local town meetings and vote in local elections people who claim to be portraying "popular" opinion are passing their personal agendas or vendettas.
ReplyDeleteI think that people, in light of the national and global issues we face, tend to forget that the governing that effects us the most takes place in our own towns and counties. Decisions made on a local level based on the values of a given community have a much greater or at least more immediate influence over our day to day lives, and as you pointed out they provide small arenas where diehard groups can claim small victories without having to fight it out on the national stage.
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