On Tuesday September 24 The New York Times posted an article entitled " In Corner of Arkansas, Frustration but No Panic Over Possible Shutdown." This article focuses on a serious problem starting to be found among today's voters: political complacency. What this means is that voters still care about issues, they're still going out and voting, but they don't expect anything to be done anymore. They lack any passion, enthusiasm, or urgency for how big political decisions may play out; because they don't expect anything to actually be accomplished. The article specifically addresses the current looming threat of a government shutdown and how, “Wolf’s been called so much. I don’t
think they’ll shut it down. But they won’t get anything solved, that’s
what I think,”has become they general feelings over an issue that some would argue will greatly effect our country.
In all honesty this article is not very good, in fact I wouldn't even call it interesting. They focus way to much on the fact that the peopled interviewed are from small town Arkansas. Long flowery description of the scenery, the layout of buildings, and even how the museum gives the town a, "kind of cosmopolitan and hipster feel," just makes it hard to focus on the actual important information. The reality of it is that this problem extends beyond just some conservative corner of the state of Arkansas. Right now it would be reasonable to say that congress is just a battleground for Republicans and Democrats to fight for power, and that any real passing of legislation is just a next priority. Every bill makes headlines as "Victory for conservatives!" or "defeat for Liberals!" and vice versa, but as long as congress remains some stagnate war zone for politicians more and more Americans will just stop expecting progress.
I by no means have a solution to this problem, but in my opinion problems like these point towards mechanical issues that need to be fixed in our actual government, not just politicians.
