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| Meagan Floyd University of Louisville |
By Meagan Floyd, Class of 2013
Americans love to complain about the inadequacy of our political system. We get upset when week after week we watch Congress argue and debate over every little piece of information. We dissect every statement the presidential candidates make, realizing time and time again that these politicians are human. They make mistakes and are not always the most efficient workers. I have never been so grateful for our purposely flawed system of checks and balances and America’s “lame-stream media” until yesterday.
Our class at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University is looking at China as a rising world power. Susan Shirk’s “China Fragile Superpower” looks at the global strength but domestic weakness of China. The communist party debates only behind closed doors, coming forward with a strong, unified face to keep the citizens in order. The views of individual politicians will never be known and each member of the party can be easily replaced without the public ever knowing.
Each class ends with a discussion between the McConnell scholars and the Chinese students in our class. Many of these students have become our friends outside of class. They are our student guides on field trips, traveling the city and going out to eat with us. Yesterday, we asked these students whether it bothers them not to know the political views of their next president. Their answers were apathetic; they explained that while it may be nice to know, there is no way for them to find out so they don’t spend time worrying about it. Instead, they focus on their future careers and making a large amount of money. Coming from a society where we know not only every political view, but also every social mishap a politician makes, I can’t imagine living so completely in the dark as to what is actually happening with the structures in charge of controlling so many aspects of my life.
Meagan Floyd, from Louisville, Ky., is a senior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville and is currently studying in the People's Republic of China. She is majoring in political science with a minor in social change.