RAISON D'ETRE

Storm sewer has little, if anything, to do with waste management. Nor is it fixated upon the weather. Global warming is one of our concerns, however. An even larger concern is the pitiful state of the American political system. To say it has faults is to admit nothing. Every political system imaginable has faults. What America has are severe structural deficiencies that prevent economic and social reforms from occurring.

Perhaps the Founding Fathers intended it that way. Place barriers in the way of majoritarian reforms that might improve the social well-being of the many and thus preserve the power of elites. The point is: we are not beholden to the creators of the American Constitution, though we may be guided by some of its principles. We are emboldened to believe that we can create a more rational society, one that can emerge from the depths of the sewer into which the American political system has guided us, especially in my lifetime.

In short, we might begin by calling for a political system that eliminates the gerrymandering of legislative districts by adopting something along the lines of the German political system that combines single-member constituencies with a modified proportional representative system. We might follow that up with demands for a radical restructuring of the taxation system so that inherited wealth and income deriving from financial speculations will be treated less generously than wages earned through honest effort.

Still, we exist in the society in which we have been born and raised. There are issues that do not touch upon these core beliefs that nevertheless must be addressed, if we are ever to achieve the greater political goals we seek.

Revolutionary, perhaps. Evolutionary, certainly. The point is: unless we begin to stand on our feet and take the first hesitant steps forward, we will certainly never have the opportunity to succeed, let alone learn from our mistakes.