“If Plan A doesn’t work out, the alphabet has 25 more letters.”
Dina I -
Hello Everyone!
Welcome to my blog, or, as they’d say at the start of a State House floor session: The House will come to order.
“If Plan A doesn’t work out, the alphabet has 25 more letters.” This project took me all the way to Plan Z, but nonetheless, here we are!
Friday marked my first day working with Representative Austin at the State House. Elected in 2022 to Legislative District (LD) 9 and recently re-elected, Rep. Austin is someone I’m eager to learn from as I continue my journey in politics.
Oxford defines politics as “the activities involved in getting and using power in public life and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a society.” But I want to explore beyond that. I want to explore how pragmatism and bipartisan decision-making can shape policymaking, a task that seems daunting in our current political state. Through this project, I hope to unravel and add to my understanding of politics, whether at the district level through community involvement or the state level at the Capitol.
And, apparently, I’m already learning unexpected lessons, like what not to bring through security. Fun fact: the State House security team does not smile favorably upon bringing Nerd Gummy Clusters into the building. Lesson learned.
If my first day is any indication, this experience is going to be full of surprises (and maybe a few more security mishaps). At the heart of my passion for politics is a belief in effective, functional governance. I’m eager to see firsthand how legislators navigate the challenge of bridging differences to create policies that actually work for us.
Perhaps that belief is a bit far-fetched in our current state of government, so in the next post, we’ll learn about the super fun partisan tactic of striking!
I can’t wait to share what I learn!
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