Axar.az presents an article “Democracy Versus Control” by John Samuel Tieman.

I was recently elected to the city council of my hometown, University City, Missouri. So it's appropriate now that I ask a simple question. What is it that I am supposed to do?

Not long ago, I met with a former colleague. We used to teach together. She wanted me to meet her new boyfriend. Karen is maybe my age, maybe a bit younger. I'm 74. I recall her once speaking fondly of Dwight Eisenhower. Meaning she's old school Republican. She lives in my ward. So she introduces me to her new beau. He was not repelled by my being a politician, a liberal, a Vietnam veteran. But, within minutes, it became apparent that there was a gulf, perhaps an unbridgeable gulf. He said Pres. Obama was a Muslim from Kenya. Karen looked embarrassed. What followed was not hostility, however. What followed was awkward silence.

I represent maybe 11,000 or so constituents. I thought to myself, “I can represent Karen. I like Republicans. But how do I represent someone like this guy?” The answer is, in a sense, I can't represent him if by “represent” I mean “control”. Because that's what I want to do, control his bizarre behavior. However, for all his delusions, he's still a neighbor. I can't just dismiss him.

I have always had control issues. It all dates back to my childhood. As with so many things in my life, I've gotten better with age. I used to think that most folks got better. So it caught me as a bit of a surprise when, while I was running for the city council, a likely opponent, a guy my age, said of our ward that the council member needs “to control all these people.” That's the job, according to him, “to control all these people.”

That never occurred to me. At least it never occurred to me in the context of representative democracy. Our form of government makes power diffuse. No one member can do much without the cooperation of a vast array of others. I can do nothing by myself on the City Council. Even to get a bill considered, I need a second. The representative is expected to be one with his constituents in such a way that their will and his will, his conscience and their conscience, are served by a kind of solidarity. At least that's the ideal. The ballot is the tool that makes the ideal practical.

If you think this is outlandishly idealistic, all you need to do is read Trump's “Project 2025”. “Project 2025” is, in essence, the Republican platform. The “Project” seeks to replace the republic with an authoritarian, Christian nationalist government. Legal experts say it will undermine civil liberties, the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the separation of church and state. Vast portions of the civil service would have their independence undermined because their appointments would be based upon loyalty to Trump rather than expertise in their fields.

I've learned little in life. But this much I've learned. The opposite of control is not a lack of control. The opposite of control is possibility. “Once you give up trying to control everything, anything is possible", my wife once said.

Someone asks me how being an artist informs my work on City Council. In Chicago not long ago, I saw an exhibit of the work of Christina Ramberg, the painter. She spoke of how she has stopped being the painter who crafts and started being simply the artist. I've thought the same thing about my poetry. I don't want to be a wordsmith. I just want to be a poet. Politics, same thing. I don't want to be a good politician. I just want to be a better neighbor.