Politics has folded in on itself.

How many times our political systems has been folded, I think, depends on the day and how close we are to a major election.

I’ve been told that it’s impossible to fold a piece of paper more than 7 or 8 times (unless you’re a Mythbuster), which is the image that keeps coming to mind when looking at government, particularly the US government, or any similar democracy operating on a large scale.

Politics mandates reaching a decision – reaching a “collective decision”. When a decision cannot be reached: enter subcommittee number one (the first paper fold). They cannot make a decision, more politics within the double politic usually results in some sort of blue ribbon committee, or mega panel, or super committee (the most recent manifestation) – another fold. But we’ll table that problem for a moment.

When does a population become too large to efficiently govern? I confess I am so far removed from being a constitutional scholar that it’s laughable to even write down the phrase, but as far as I know, the US did its best to allocate a lot of power to the states. Well done.

The ENTIRE population of the United States in 1790 when the first census took place was 3.9 million people…

New York City currently has just over 8 million people. Twice as many in just NYC as were in the entire country just three years after the constitution was written… country-wide we’re looking at well over 312 million people in our Democracy. Raise your hand if you really thing that’s a number that is capable of reaching a stable decision on any fiscal or social issue beyond that killing is bad. Even the idea that everyone should have food or warmth is up for debate now.

The point being: with this many people there comes a certain equilibrium of opposing beliefs. With this many people, the People cannot politic to ever reach a majority decision. It just can’t be done. 50 million, maybe, but 300+ million people… I think it’s well beyond the critical mass of never being able to reach a workable majority. All that can ever happen is that the pendulum of political momentum will constantly swing back and – left to right – over and over and over again. One side does, then on the next swing the other removes what was done and puts in their own.

The cycle repeats. It’s no wonder Washington can’t do anything, because there can never be a long-term belief system that can stabilize the direction of social or political issues because there are just too many darn people. If Washington DOES accomplish anything, then the pendulum will just eventually swing the other way and it will all get undone again. Our lovely politicians know this and have decided that the only way to keep a job in Washington is to keep their heads down and not do anything but give good speeches about nothing at all while nevertheless sound inspiring. It takes a lot of skill to give meaningless speeches over and over again with conviction. Politicians are better actors than our nation’s actors are.

That a long-term social consensus cannot be reached demands that our politics keeps politicking itself in order to appear as though its accomplishing something to justify the paycheck and health benefits. The democratic paper keeps folding in on itself. But nothing can be folded more than 7 or 8 times.

I haven’t a clue if there’s an answer to the dilemma other than hope and dialog. We like to think that by sharing ideas we can all come to an agreement, but if Congress is in constant gridlock, and if our courts value system favors big speech more than little speech, then who is to claim that millions of people who have nothing in common other than the concept of citizenship can do it? They can’t. We just yell at the TV for awhile, feel superior to the other side, and turn on Biggest Loser.

We’re definitely sill in the infancy of this Democracy experiment; just as much as we are in Capitalism and how each of us decides we express and practice our religion or spirituality. After all, we are human, which pretty much means it’s always going to be a wicked mess.

As we continue to grow, the personalized value and belief-based policies will grow more and more difficult to fold into our politics… all we can do is let go of them, I suppose. That was in there, too: separation of church and state was the main example they had back then. But to keep from reaching complete deadlock point of 7 folds of our Paper of Democracy – I think we need to let go of those issues. If a country can’t agree with a large majority on an issue, then that issues doesn’t belong in government. If a city wants health care for all its citizens, go for it (I’ll move there and pay whatever taxes are required). If a state can pull it off, I applaud you. As such, if another city wants to declare a municipal religion or ban gay marriage in its incorporated area… I guess maybe we have to let that happen, too. Gotta let go of trying to make the rest of the country become like our own town.

The bigger something gets, the less complex issues it can address, the more convoluted communication becomes, and the longer it takes for it to turn a corner (if it doesn’t bloat so far that it cannot turn at all).

Until aliens land… that might be the way to stay sane, unify a wee bit, and get ‘er done. Spock, help a brother out, man. Where are you when we really need you?