Local Involvement

I injected myself (probably unwanted and foolishly) into a debate about the value of local involvement at a family event not long ago, and at the time I was largely not supportive of it, feeling that being involved at a higher level was more important when things are as bad as they are right now.  I am not widely known for being this way, but I have come to change my mind.
A few things have happened.  One is that I see that while a measure that is widely unpopular, like the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, is driven not so much by what constituents want but what big donors want, and that means that I can have very little influence with my Congressional representatives.  They are all very much driven by things that are not in my control, even the one that I voted for.  So that is important to do, but it isn't going to bring about change in my lifetime.
The second thing is that I have noticed a big difference in how involved people are locally, and it can definitely make a difference.  We had a school election and bond measure that was hotly contested and I was for sure going to make it into the voting booth.  But I missed the couple of days of early voting, so I had to go the day of, and I was shocked by how crowded it was.  I had to park a block away, and then wait in a real line to vote.  And I went in the middle of the afternoon!  It was the largest turnout ever for a school board election, and one of the candidates got more votes than any previous candidate had ever gotten.  Amazing.  And the right things happened.  So we do have to energize our base, get people more involved, and that really helped me to see that it could make a difference.