Imagine if we just picked our politicians by lottery
Nov 3, 2016, 7:04 AM | Updated: 9:21 am
What do Millennials want from the political system?
CBS’s Elaine Quijano held a town hall with 30 Millennials, some for Trump, some for Clinton, some undecided. And it seems to me what they all wanted was security.
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They want to feel more secure about their finances.
“How am I going to pay for my own college, let alone four children in succession?” one of them asked.
They want to feel more secure walking down the street.
“I was just leaving my summer job [when] I was robbed and shot in my head,” one man described.
They want to feel more secure expressing an opinion on campus.
“I say I’m a Trump supporter and they immediately think I’m racist, I’m Islamophobic. And that’s not OK,” one of the women said.
And they just want to feel more secure just sitting at home.
“A lot of people don’t realize that when you’re so-called undocumented, this life that you have acquired for yourself, can be ripped from you at any time.”
But the most impressive thing about the Town Hall was that these 30 young people, racially diverse and politically polarized, just wanted to feel a little more in control of their circumstances. And I think they understood that about each other.
“I sit here and I’m smiling because this is what needs to be done. How come we can do this but politicians can’t do this?” one of the participants asked.
Because politicians are radicalized by our brutal election process.
Imagine if every 10 years we called a timeout, sent the elected politicians home, and instead we picked the House of Representatives by lottery, the same way we pick juries. That would be a radical change. They might actually talk to each other.
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