Nobody said representative democracy was supposed to be easy. As political philosophies go, it’s—by design—a wonderfully messy, inefficient and slow-moving form of government. Its massive upside, in theory, is it demands the interests of those being governed trump those doing the governing.
That all sounds fabulous and it’s what every child attending a semi-decent school learns in civics class, but here, in Baton Rouge, it’s pretty hard right now to see the virtue of democracy, writes Business Report Executive Editor J.R. Ball in his new opinion piece.
The Baton Rouge Metro Council is a fractured, parochial and largely ineffective legislative branch made even worse—if such a thing is possible—by voters having little faith in the ability of council members they elect to actually do their job. So deep is the mistrust that even anti-tax, small-government conservatives support the creation of independent taxing authorities and dedicated taxes—both of which grow government and lead to higher taxes—just to keep a check on the council’s spending power.
To be fair, Baton Rouge is hardly the only place where the democracy most of us fondly remember is becoming a distant memory. Anyone paying attention to what’s happening in our nation’s capital?
Perhaps it’s time for people to leave the comfort of their silos and actually listen—and hear—what the other side has to say, Ball writes. Certainly, there’s got to be a piece of common ground somewhere.
Read Ball’s full column, in which he describes in greater detail the dysfunction in Baton Rouge, how it got this way, and what’s a city-parish to do next.
