This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Political Gridlock: A Part of Democracy

An Iranian Pedi Cab Driver in Canada makes astute observations about American style government.

If one follows the news from Sacramento or from Washington, DC lately, it appears that political gridlock is the norm. 

In Sacramento, state legislators have been unable to reach some sort of consensus on the state budget, whether it is on budget cuts or taxes.  Even Governor Brown is at odds with legislators from his own political party. 

In Washington, DC, divided government is the norm, with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, while Democrats still in control of the Senate and the White House, and while the judiciary branch sometimes appears to chart its own course.

As a citizen, this gridlock is frustrating.  With the multitude of problems in our nation, it just seems that our government just won’t simply act quickly enough to address them.  Instead, there is a lot of political posturing, with each side trying to zing the other just in time for the next election.  Legislation does get passed but getting it done seems as comfortable as a root canal procedure.

Yet, as frustrated as I sometimes get about government gridlock, I learned a lesson from, of all people, a Pedi cab driver in Victoria, Canada.

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Last summer, in Victoria, Canada, the final port of our family’s Alaskan cruise, my wife and I decided, at the spur of the moment, to take a Pedi cab tour of Victoria. 

Our Pedi cab driver turned out to be a college student from the local university in Victoria.  We also learned that he was originally from Iran and had, along with his family, immigrated to Canada several years earlier.  My wife asked him how he much liked living in Canada.  He responded that life in Canada was much better than life in Iran.  We shared with him that we were from California.

As the tour progressed, our driver huffed and puffed on his bicycle as he navigated a number of small hills, all the while pointing out the different sights of Victoria and providing a little bit of history of the area. 

One of our stops was the governor’s mansion, where we stopped to tour the vast gardens.  I expressed surprise that such a place was so easily accessible by the public.  Our driver shared his view that such accessibility was one of the major differences between life in Canada and life in Iran.  I remarked that in the United States, our political leaders are often surrounded by bodyguards or a phalanx of aides and that the average citizen often feels that its political leaders are not getting enough done in a timely manner and that many Americans have become apathetic or cynical about our political leaders.

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Our driver expressed his sympathy.  He indicated that as a Victoria resident, like most Canadians, he regularly watched American television stations and American news programs, so he was familiar with the concerns I had raised.

Our driver then made an interesting observation.  American style of government was unique in the world, in that it was not unusual for different branches to be controlled by different political parties, along with an independent judiciary. 

In other countries, even those with democratic governments, typically one political party controlled both the executive and legislative branches.  Our driver thought that while this facilitated quicker governmental action, the risk of tyranny was much greater.  He felt that most democratically elected governments could be easily become repressive if one political party wielded too much power.  Even in Canada, he felt there was a risk of one political party having too much power.

Our driver felt that the United States, with its myriad of checks and balances, had far greater safeguards against a government suddenly becoming repressive or oppressing a minority viewpoint.  He envied that, in the United States, one could easily express opposition to government policies and the ruling political party, without fear that the government would take punitive action.  Such freedom made the United States unique, even among democratically elected governments.  So while he understood that the United States often had governmental gridlock due to opposing political agendas, he felt that such gridlock was not necessarily bad. 

Sometimes we forget, having not lived under other political systems, that the American system of government, however flawed, does have more checks and balances, than other governments.  It may lead to political gridlock from time to time, but perhaps that’s a price we pay for a political system that also protects the interests of those not in power.  I was reminded of that by an Iranian Pedi cab driver in Canada.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Arcadia