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Blog about the experience of the class.

Very excited to start my first blog about Beyond Rep Gov. I think I'll talk about my initial impressions and first thoughts.
 * 1) The dominating thought on my mind is that government, and particularly the people in government (for what is government if not the individuals who comprise it) often lag behind the public in terms of what they desire or want. There is a huge gap between how individuals act in their everyday lives, whose dominating concern might be how do I get groceries quicker, or with less effort, how can I get my children to school faster, and the constant political discourse over ,say, transgender rights. This is not to say that transgender rights are not important, in fact they are crucial to a fair and even democracy, but that the individual concerns of voters are often bulldozed by dominant political narratives. How can democracy flourish in the age of intense, individualization.
 * 2) What are the legitimate aims of a democracy? Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there is a general tendency around the world to ignore utopian, or idealistic thinking, and instead focus less on a moral goal, and some arbitrary direction (e.g. the obsession with GDP growth in the world today, which equates neither with welfare, nor good production per se). Can we move back the pendulum to greater moral aims of democracy, that is achieving the right to a fulfilled life for every individual regardless of the cicrumstances of their birth, or any other arbitrary circumstances like the fluctuation of a random economy.