[Vision2020] An Idea With Some Merit?

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Monday 08 February 2010 10:24:51 keely emerinemix wrote:
<[snip]>
> I find the idea of Congressional representation based on race and   
> income really quite appealing in some respects.  Of course it'll   
> never happen, just as honest representation of poor people's       
> concerns under the current system won't, either.
<[snip]>

While I will admit to some empathetic understanding of the suggestion 
implicit in representation based on demographic characteristics, I 
find that the suggestion likely misses the more important point 
concerning just what should be the optimal mix of characteristics in 
an effectively-operating legislature.

One presumes, not without some concerns, that legislators gather in 
legislatures to solve civic problems, mindful of the interests of at 
least the electorate, if not the population at large. Would the 
electorate be best served, then, if this collective legislative brain 
were composed of parts chosen in proportion to the numbers of the 
various types of cells of which the electoral body is composed? For 
example, certain percentages of skin cells, of muscle cells, of bone 
cells, of various organ cells, and, of course, of fat cells, too?

In a word, no. A brain, legislative or not, is a specialized organ 
composed primarily of specialized cells with very complex networks of 
interconnections among its various sections and parts. It doesn't 
need bone cells or muscle cells, except perhaps metaphorically, to 
function most effectively. Just as proportional selection of 
representatives for various cellular constituencies will not build 
the best brain, so too will proportional selection of representatives 
for various demographic constituencies not build the optimally 
effective legislature.

What sort of legislature might the electorate prefer, in its own 
better interest? Perhaps one composed of forward-looking, prescient, 
problem-solvers, men and women whose collaborative, cooperative, and 
communicative styles, and whose decision-making frames of reference, 
are predominantly focused more toward the future than fixated in the 
past. The political philosophies, life activities, and mental 
cultures of people who lived before the widespread advent of 
electricity likely are not as appropriate for those who now consider 
themselves to be members both of local and global constituencies. Yet 
our legislatures seem composed more of the latter than the former.


Ken