Bossy Parents and Schools: The Real Reasons We Re-Elected a Congress We Hate

That happened, as you probably know. Congress had 10% approval rating and a 91% re-election rate. The f*ck?

Most seem to boil the issue down to partisanship and voter ignorance, which seems more or less as obvious as my love for burritos.

There's pretty much no denying that we Americans "don't understand" the "enormously complex and vastly distant government". So the parties use ordinary marketing methods because that sh*t works. YOU HAVE A NICE SMILE. YOUR SLOGAN IS TRUTH. Catch phrases, oversimplification, blar blar blar.

All true. I see the sh*t that people who I wouldn't otherwise suspect of being total jack wagons share on Facebook. The memes. TEA PARTY because CONSERVATIVE. How convincing. Sign me up. (Not YOU, though. The memes you share are deep. Really.)

Yes. I see how easily manipulated voters are. Er'ry day.

And when people talk about how to avoid this, they talk about the structure of government, the electoral process, sh*t like that. Word. Back in school, we spent entire courses trying to solve that problem as we earned our BAs in Politics. Mercifully, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics served baller hot chocolate. Because damn. If you think the government in reality is enormously complex, try government IN THEORY. Holy hell. Get cozy, kids. You're gonna be here awhile.

Put it this way. Even the guys who designed this government, arguably the best to date (insofar as it's the longest lived and living democracy), they were just guessing. They disagreed with each other every step of the way. They even screwed up the first time.

They argued about theory, which we still do today. But. Today, NONE OF IT MATTERS. Or, it matters hugely, but also partially doesn't matter in a very all-consuming way.

Stay with me. What I'm saying is that there's one super fundamental issue that NO ONE (or not nearly enough ones) are talking about.

Let's get this out of the way. The government is only as distant as we allow it to be. As any casual stalker will tell you, it takes two to create distance. We could totally stalk the government if we wanted to. (DEAR NSA, DON'T WORRY, NOT IN A SCARY WAY.) In this way: sign up for emails to find out what those f*ckers are doing, or find out here or here or here, or Google that sh*t and find about seventy thousand other places to find out. IT COULDN'T BE EASIER.

Sure. That sh*t still gets confusing. Because GUN OWNERSHIP PROVISIONS IN HEALTHCARE BILLS. But still. Just stop voting for anyone who adds a horsesh*t rider onto an important bill. Just as easy as not voting for anyone whose votes we don't agree with. This isn't really hard.

IN THEORY.

So here's my point, which is also a lot of other people's points: WHY DON'T WE? Why don't we put even the smallest amount of effort toward getting what we want from those f*ckers with the lifetime pensions?

MY ANSWER: From day one, we are taught not to question the powers that rule over us. And this is downright buffoonery in a democracy.

And this is hardly a government conspiracy. It's PARENTS. Parents emphasize obedience. The casualties are self-advocacy, negotiation, persistence. Things that make a good citizen of democracy.

But who can blame them? Because everyone out there in society values kids who are one thing: OBEDIENT. Guys. I get it. Obedient kids don't get in your way. They don't give you a headache. COOL.

But obedience is like a dark, sketchy alley that would save you so much walking but also might be where you meet a murderer and then die. Obedience is a DANGEROUS SHORTCUT.

It is a SHORTCUT. It's a shortcut to CONSIDERATE. I know why we take this shortcut. Because we can't simply command CONSIDERATE, and we don't see immediate results when we try to teach it. Oh, and teaching it requires MODELING. And yes. Modeling means WE have to BE CONSIDERATE to other people. EVEN WHEN WE DON'T WANT TO BE. Aw sh*t.

But what a world that would be.

Nonetheless, if that's your approach to parenting, you'll piss people off. Because we've been indoctrinated with this obedience-centric horsesh*t for a long time. Generally, people think kids who aren't on the receiving end of OBEY ME are destined for hoodlumdom.

But, if you're a strong and patient parent, you can do it. You can spearhead the peaceful revolution that will one day make government accountable again. So simple. F*ck obedience, focus on empathy.

There's a less simple component, though. Because maybe it also REALLY IS a government conspiracy. Because they are the ones passing absurd sh*t like Common Core Standards, the result of which is schools turning kids into automatons rather than willful individuals.

I don't know if this kind of obedience momentum in public schools and in legislation can be stopped. And maybe the government will be unaccountable forever. But at the absolute very least, enlightened parents should keep at it.