Dumbocracy

[Daveparts]

Dumbocracy
By David Glenn Cox
http://theservantsofpilate.com



"You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate,” Senator Mark Pryor once said. If ever there was one word of truth emitting from the halls of congress, this was it. I’ve heard it said that democracy works best in small groups, but you couldn’t prove it by me. With my family of four in tow I would take them out to dinner using the democratic model by which we would decide on pizza. Then the discussion would begin on where to get this pizza, which would break down into factionalism with, “I don’t like their pizza” or, “I don’t want any mushrooms on my pizza!”

Eventually we would decide on a place that served pizza by the slice, but then my wife would add, “I don’t want to go that far just for pizza!” Sometimes the debate would go on until, worn down by hunger and headache, we would decide that the best place to get pizza was the Mexican restaurant just down the street from the house. No one got what they wanted; we settled on a second or third choice, a choice that particularly pleased no one.

Sometimes there is just a case of the wrong person for the job. A friend of mine who was a policeman told me he quit because, “Only two kinds of people want to be policemen, the ones that want to help people and those who like to push people around. Those that want to help people quickly lose their idealism and are ground down and burnt out by the daily sufferings of the public. The others get what they want every day, and can’t wait for tomorrow.”

Likewise Boy Scout troop leaders and ministers; this same friend went into the ministry and lamented that, “God has the worst salesmen in the whole world, either they don’t know what they’re talking about or they’re just trying to make a buck and make themselves look good in the process.” I don’t know, I’d call that a purpose-driven life, wouldn’t you? What young, aspiring minister doesn’t put his or her head down and pray, "Dear Lord, allow me to lead sinners to salvation at the head of a huge mega-church, where I don’t know the names of any of the parishioners. And let my book climb to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Because I love you, Lord, and millions of dollars in my bank account would be really cool!"

Politics is a mix of all of these genres, trying to care for a city, a state, or a national family and trying to do the right thing when there is no easy solution that will please all. Democratic politics is even more difficult because it is a complicated series of trade-offs, balancing public good with personal good. Like the policeman, the noble and altruistic will tire of fighting against the angry mob of special interests and personal interests. My real estate instructor told us, “In most communities the members of the water and sewer boards serve for free; they are developers and construction company executives who give freely of their time. Because they know that wherever the water and sewers go, property values escalate."

We have the travails of Governor Blagojevich, who is roundly condemned for being a corrupt politician, when in fact all he is is a politician. A politician seeking the best bargain for himself in a way that wouldn’t affect the public by one iota. I’m not defending him, only acknowledging that democracy is what it is. The Bush administration is a living, breathing manifestation of this. As members of the Securities and Exchange Commission have testified that they didn’t believe in the commission yet accepted appointments to it. John Bolton was appointed ambassador to the United Nations despite his lifelong dislike for the organization.

Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader, announced that he and the Republican minority would go through Obama’s stimulus package line by line. McConnell supported the 700 billion-dollar bailout of Wall Street saying, “We know that there is a serious threat to our economy, and we know that we must take action to try and head off a serious blow to Main Street.” McConnell then voted against the bailout of the big three as quickly as he voted for the Patriot Act and the invasion of Iraq. Their answer is, we don’t have an answer but we don’t like yours so we will obstruct it and then say, "we told you so," when it fails.

We are facing the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression. It is as if our economic house is on fire and the Republicans threaten to deny us the use of the fire hose unless we mollify the solution to suit their preferences. Southern Senators work against national interests to support foreign automakers who stand to gain billions in profits if the big three go under. Not since the firing on Fort Sumpter has there been such an act of national disloyalty. It only takes one rat to foul the kitchen and so we never get what we need. We get half of this and part of that; we can’t have national health care because too many people make too much money to ever let it happen.

Most of the time we can get along just fine with the bumbling and stumbling of our leaders because, as Pryor said, "You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate." We can afford ourselves the luxury of being led by the dumbest people in the room. But then there are the times that we find ourselves in situations like today, when partisan wrangling and obstructionism means hunger, cold and suffering for millions of Americans. Of the 700 hundred billion approved by McConnell not one dime has reached one American to save one mortgage, and on this McConnell is silent and unconcerned about Main Street.

In a similar time Franklin Roosevelt warned the Congress, “Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors.

Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.”

Americans welcomed this message; they understood what he was saying, we will do this together or I will do it myself. Americans had had enough of the Dumbocracy of obstructionism and half measures. This is the greatest danger to a real democracy, that those running it have little vested interest in it.

A hereditary king looks out over his kingdom as his inheritance and legacy, to be passed down to his progeny. He has a vested interest in its survival because if it doesn’t survive, chances are neither will he. Authoritarian governments have the ability to get things done quickly but are usually too corrupt because, like the Bush or Stalin administration, people advance through party loyalty rather than through competence.

Perhaps America needs that “temporary departure,” because this Dumbocracy has painted us into a corner. It has ceased to work in the interests of the people at large. 700 billion for the banks, no strings attached; aid for struggling homeowners we need to look at very closely. The President’s Project Hope aided just 332 families out of one hundred thousand applications but it was a "success." It was a public relations success, a media success paid for by 99,668 people who bit at the hook for the lure of assistance, failing to realize that this is a Dumbocracy and they only help those who pay them.

President-elect Obama ran on a platform of change, yet his cabinet choices signal more of the same. His choice of the purpose-driven life author, millionaire and homophobic preacher Rick Warren is described by the incoming administration as an olive branch to the conservatives. Wait, I thought we won? Why are we offering olive branches? Oh, that’s right, if you give your adversaries a chance to make themselves look good and to validate their points of view then they will do the same for you. Dumbocracy at its finest.

Perhaps the new President should read, “The First Hundred Days” again, the people are demanding change, not looking for style points.

[starroute]

1. I don't think it's as simple as that

The Constitution simply isn't as great as the author thinks it is. For one thing, it depends on everybody being willing to play by the rules and show a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. When the Republicans decide they're going to game the system and spit in the face of 90% of the country, it very quickly turns out that there's no effective remedy short of impeachment -- or, at best, long drawn-out court battles -- which is not a very satisfactory way to conduct the day-to-day business of the country.

Executive privilege? Signing statements? Last-minute changes in regulations? Turning political appointees into career appointees so they can't be fired by a new administration? All of these are against the spirit of the Constitution, but the Democrats haven't managed to deal with any of them. Even Norm Coleman's intention of waging a weeks or months-long court battle over the Minnesota Senate race, and the Senate GOP's willingness to filibuster to keep Franken from being seated while it goes on, have the Democrats tied up in knots.

These are not signs of "the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced." These are signs of total system failure.

That's not to mention the more long-term problem that Congress doesn't act quickly enough for even the 20th century world, let alone the 21st -- and that the vast federal bureaucracy that Roosevelt started creating in response has proven to be far too easily politicized and has saddled us with an increasingly imperial presidency. Most of the problems I noted above come about precisely because control of the federal bureaucracy gives the president a disproportionate amount of power and ability to do end-runs around the intent of Congress.

Add in increasing levels of secrecy to keep the whole system as opaque as possible -- massive outsourcing of even routine government functions to private corporations -- plus the cash-heavy nature of contemporary political campaigns, which ensures that our supposed representatives will represent their wealthy and corporate donors rather than we the people -- and its amazing that the system works at all, however badly, and hasn't already sunk back into the primal ooze.

A lot of the immediate problems might be solved by the creation of a truly independent, depoliticized, and non-outsourced federal bureaucracy, free of party control and party-based turnovers in personnel and leadership -- though I'm not sure quite where our present Constitution leaves a space for such a thing. Maybe in the same inter-dimensional vortex currently inhabited only by Dick Cheney.

But in the long run, the real problem is that any system created to be operated by persons of good will can be subverted by persons who are merely out for personal gain and don't care about the consequences. And I'm not sure what can be done about that.

[truedelphi]

2. Actually I found an inaccuracy in one sentence:

You say: Of the 700 hundred billion approved by McConnell not one dime has reached one American to save one mortgage, and on this McConnell is silent and unconcerned about Main Street.


Kucinich found out that somewhere under 500 mortgages,owned by middle income folks, and that were in trouble, were helped by the 770 Billion dollar Bailout bill. That's about 15 million bucks for each middle class family helped!!

Other than that one sentence, Your OP is superb

Obama has already had his "Good job, Brownie," moment, when he praised Hank Paulson by saying how hard Hank was working. I am not expecting much of a change, other than a cosmetic one, from him.