Dumbocracy

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.