Are you angry? Are you disgusted with politics and politicians? If so, David Brooks shows us how to express it and understand it. Read this.
Pundit under Protest
By David Brooks - NYT, June 13, 2011
Many of my angriest friends, left and right, are so teed off at the enemy Party that they are knee jerk supporters of the other Party – no matter how inept or counterproductive it may be. Boys and girls, the enemy is the nation’s two political Parties – when it comes to destructiveness, all other corruption and lobbying pales in comparison.
Both Parties have been overrun by radicals. Progressives are communists and they out number liberals in the Democratic Party by controlling margins; conservatives are extinct; those carrying the conservative label in the Republican Party today are either Luddite Bible thumpers or brain dead libertarians.
My favorite quote from any government official – one overused by this President – is, “Elections have consequences.” Could there be a better shorthand way for a leader to say, “This is a war and I won. I will now represent the people who voted for me and I don’t care a whit for the people who voted against me.”
The Parties control our politics through the primary system. If they don’t like you, you will never be allowed to run. If elected and you do not vote as ordered – 100% of the time – they will remove you from office by running against you in the primary and if that fails, they will refuse to fund your campaign. In federal elections, the national Parties play an ever greater role, further separating government from the will and good of the people.
Brooks is right on, the state of our politics and leadership is pathetic – and the fault is ours, right and left. If we care about our kids and grandkids, we simply must pay attention – possibly for the rest of our lives. Get used to it.
There is only one weapon available to us at the moment and two more that we must steadfastly work toward:
1. We must ruthlessly punish the office holders and Parties that do not work for the good of the nation with special rancor reserved for the biggest liars.
President Obama has to go. His replacement will be a Republican because Democrats will not select a better candidate. And I have no doubt that we will need to oust the 2012 winner in 2016.
If you are fortunate enough to have a useful Congressman, then vote for her but otherwise, vote for the “enemy” party candidates in your state or write in someone to send our message.
I am well aware that for some time to come, terrible people will run unopposed for federal office – vote anyway and write in your grandmother or brother-in-law.
2. We need the right to vote in all primaries.
N thinks that is “unfair” and will lead to even more control by the dominant Party – in a red state, Republicans would outnumber Democrats in the primaries and select the weakest candidate. She has a point. Her solution is the “open primary” where all candidates vie together in a single election to be selected as the candidates – the top two vote getters in the primary would run in the general election regardless of Party affiliation.
N persuades me about open primaries partly because the concept would annihilate the Parties’ domination. That of course means that our Party dominated current legislatures will never allow it. Either way, we need to be ready to fight the long term fight.
3. We need to eliminate Party control of districting – aka gerrymandering.
We need competitive districts where legislators are forced to represent diverse interests in order to be elected. We need to permanently crush identity politics.
We let this pathetic and dangerous state of affairs happen – our apathy and the Parties’ radicalization have been growing since the end of WW2. Many of us simply didn’t vote because, “They’re all bums.” Our disgust with politicians and the courts has made us pathetic. It has led us to defensive selfishness, “Why should I sacrifice, they’ll just give my money to the … [enemy].” We have supported governors who say, “I hate the such-and-so federal program but I can’t leave all that money on the table.” We agreed with that but it’s wrong. We can leave the money when appropriate and must. It’s the money – handouts – that makes the Party lobbies so powerful.
We can fix this but we’ll have to pay attention and we’ll have to work for a long time. My generation in particular should be signed up to pay attention and ready to make some sacrifices – we made this mess.
Here are the points from the Brooks column that stuck with me:
· The issue is about how to avert national decline.
o Our entitlement programs are nation ruining but Americans don’t want them touched.
o Proper policy in a recession would be to stimulate growth and help the unemployed to ride out the storm but we’re broke; we spent the money; we cannot help.
o The number of business start-ups has been falling steadily for the past three decades.
o Workers’ wages have been declining since 1983. Male wages have been stagnant for about 40 years.
o The American working class is being decimated – in 1960 83 percent were married; now only 48 percent are.
· The Republican growth agenda — tax cuts and nothing else — is stupefyingly boring, fiscally irresponsible and politically impossible. They offer nothing to address the structural problems of the nation.
· Democrats offer nothing. They acknowledge huge problems like wage stagnation and then offer... light rail! Solar panels! It was telling that the Democrats offered no budget this year, even though they are supposedly running the country.
Brooks’ point is that no politician is prepared to tell us the truth. No career politician would dare to work with others to offer solutions or sign up for useful ideas from outsiders and experts.
Our only option is to keep firing all of them.
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