A Different Sort of Tyranny
Tonight I was having one of those nights when my mind was on overdrive and pumping out ideas for me to write about... and I was in the car, driving home on the freeway. I was having all of these random thoughts about the political scene and I had to keep some key words in my mind so that I would not forget what I wanted to say. Just some random thoughts for a crisp night in November.
A Different Sort of Tyranny
When this country was founded, there were a lot of dangerous minds on the scene. Thomas Jefferson. John Adams. Thomas Paine. Alexander Hamilton. To name a few. Speaking the mind of the fledgling American people, they were taking to task the British government for what were then perceived as grievous abuses of power. Our country was born out of huge outcry that we did not have a say in the way we were governed. And so in that spirit, we rebelled and won our independence from what was then probably the greatest military and political power in the world.
Now two hundred and thirty years later, "We, the People..." are in control. At least, that is what we believe. And we also believe that what we now have is a "...government of the people, by the people and for the people." A corollary of that notion is that the individuals who are elected to political office are supposed to be the servants of the people... not the rulers of the people. Additionally, the underlying supposition is that the true power in this political system resides in the "People" [with a capitol 'P'] and that the institutions and the leaders of this country are ultimately answerable all the way down to the man on the street.
That at least is the theory. A nice theory. But, in reality, it never really has been entirely true. In any political system, there are going to be elites. In our system, the elites simply fit a slightly different profile than those in the monarchies that used to exist or those in the political systems that exist in other countries today. Our power brokers include the huge multi-national corporations that have enormous influence over our government and which ultimately impact every aspect of our lives... whose influence goes far beyond the borders of our country. We also have political parties that usually seem more intent on promoting the agenda of their respective parties than on serving the needs of even the neediest of our citizens. And then there are the special interest groups and their representatives, the hordes of the lobbyists, who have their own narrow and usually self-serving agendas. And then there is this new breed of power brokers, like Karl Rove, who believe in winning elections and successfully implementing policies at any cost, no matter if what they do ends up permanently corrupting the political process itself. And guys like George Bush and our governor, Rick Perry always remember to stay with the people that brung them to the dance... i.e. whose money, whose influence and whose votes got them elected. Well, so much for the theory.
[ A small digression: Texas would have to be the only state in the union to have a governor whose first name is Rick!]
So where does that leave the rest of us? We are in no different a position than we were back in the days before there was a United States of America. For most of us, the decisions made inside the beltway or in Austin, Texas, are beyond the realm of our ability to have any real impact. Laws are made, either in our best interests or not, and there is usually very little we can do about it, notably in the area of tax law. And you know who is going to benefit by those laws. Not those of us in the middle class and down. Occasionally, as in the mid-term elections just past, we have really been pissed off by performance of the powers that be and we make our dissatisfaction known loud and clear. But usually we are our normal apathetic selves and just sort of go with the flow.
I was going to say, we just get screwed by those in power. But since, collectively, we have allowed most of these incompetents to be put into power in the first place, I don't think we have any real right to complain... at least not until we are willing to get more actively involved in the political process. That takes a certain level of commitment to getting involved and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that happening these days.
Anyway, back to the point. We threw off the yoke of the British monarchy because we saw British rule as the worst form of tyranny and our forefathers chose not to live under the British thumb any longer. So what are we dealing with now? May I modestly suggest that what we have now is simply a different sort of tyranny, one of our own choosing.
Now two hundred and thirty years later, "We, the People..." are in control. At least, that is what we believe. And we also believe that what we now have is a "...government of the people, by the people and for the people." A corollary of that notion is that the individuals who are elected to political office are supposed to be the servants of the people... not the rulers of the people. Additionally, the underlying supposition is that the true power in this political system resides in the "People" [with a capitol 'P'] and that the institutions and the leaders of this country are ultimately answerable all the way down to the man on the street.
That at least is the theory. A nice theory. But, in reality, it never really has been entirely true. In any political system, there are going to be elites. In our system, the elites simply fit a slightly different profile than those in the monarchies that used to exist or those in the political systems that exist in other countries today. Our power brokers include the huge multi-national corporations that have enormous influence over our government and which ultimately impact every aspect of our lives... whose influence goes far beyond the borders of our country. We also have political parties that usually seem more intent on promoting the agenda of their respective parties than on serving the needs of even the neediest of our citizens. And then there are the special interest groups and their representatives, the hordes of the lobbyists, who have their own narrow and usually self-serving agendas. And then there is this new breed of power brokers, like Karl Rove, who believe in winning elections and successfully implementing policies at any cost, no matter if what they do ends up permanently corrupting the political process itself. And guys like George Bush and our governor, Rick Perry always remember to stay with the people that brung them to the dance... i.e. whose money, whose influence and whose votes got them elected. Well, so much for the theory.
[ A small digression: Texas would have to be the only state in the union to have a governor whose first name is Rick!]
So where does that leave the rest of us? We are in no different a position than we were back in the days before there was a United States of America. For most of us, the decisions made inside the beltway or in Austin, Texas, are beyond the realm of our ability to have any real impact. Laws are made, either in our best interests or not, and there is usually very little we can do about it, notably in the area of tax law. And you know who is going to benefit by those laws. Not those of us in the middle class and down. Occasionally, as in the mid-term elections just past, we have really been pissed off by performance of the powers that be and we make our dissatisfaction known loud and clear. But usually we are our normal apathetic selves and just sort of go with the flow.
I was going to say, we just get screwed by those in power. But since, collectively, we have allowed most of these incompetents to be put into power in the first place, I don't think we have any real right to complain... at least not until we are willing to get more actively involved in the political process. That takes a certain level of commitment to getting involved and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that happening these days.
Anyway, back to the point. We threw off the yoke of the British monarchy because we saw British rule as the worst form of tyranny and our forefathers chose not to live under the British thumb any longer. So what are we dealing with now? May I modestly suggest that what we have now is simply a different sort of tyranny, one of our own choosing.
An American Tragedy
After we have gotten over our sense that the downfall of guys like Tom DeLay or Newt Gingrich is justice achieved, we need to realize that what has happened is a great American tragedy.
This comes under the heading of power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of men. Take Tom DeLay. If you ask the folks down in Sugarland, Texas, not far from Houston, they will tell you that at his best, Mr. DeLay did some really remarkable things in his home town. He and his wife were responsible for ramrodding a project to build a comfortable dormitory for kids who were in the child-welfare system. They would live there with caring supervision while they were in the system, rather than being moved from one foster home to another. They would have a place that they could call home and a place they could return to after they grew up. So these men are not by nature bad people all the time. Sometimes they simply confuse the raw exercise of power with the idea that they are supposed to be serving the needs of their constituents.
And in the cases of Mr. DeLay and Mr. Gingrich, they paid a very high price. When Sonny Bono was serving in Congress about the same time as Mr. Gingrich, he warned Mr. Gingrich not to become too full of himself and his accomplishments... that there would be a price if he did. The Honorable Mr Bono came from the world of show business and knew only too well that what he was saying was true and the the high and mighty have often been taken down a notch or too when they lost their sense of perspective.
Reality bites. Reality bites even the behinds of the most powerful people in the world. It is not just a matter of there being justice in the world. It is also a matter of the way that things should be: there is going to be a price for everything that we choose to do in life... or in politics. In the process, individuals who have chosen to serve this country in government can lose their vision for what can be accomplished and squander the rare opportunities to make this country a better place in which to live, for all our citizens, great and small. That such a thing does happen... that is a great American tragedy.
This comes under the heading of power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of men. Take Tom DeLay. If you ask the folks down in Sugarland, Texas, not far from Houston, they will tell you that at his best, Mr. DeLay did some really remarkable things in his home town. He and his wife were responsible for ramrodding a project to build a comfortable dormitory for kids who were in the child-welfare system. They would live there with caring supervision while they were in the system, rather than being moved from one foster home to another. They would have a place that they could call home and a place they could return to after they grew up. So these men are not by nature bad people all the time. Sometimes they simply confuse the raw exercise of power with the idea that they are supposed to be serving the needs of their constituents.
And in the cases of Mr. DeLay and Mr. Gingrich, they paid a very high price. When Sonny Bono was serving in Congress about the same time as Mr. Gingrich, he warned Mr. Gingrich not to become too full of himself and his accomplishments... that there would be a price if he did. The Honorable Mr Bono came from the world of show business and knew only too well that what he was saying was true and the the high and mighty have often been taken down a notch or too when they lost their sense of perspective.
Reality bites. Reality bites even the behinds of the most powerful people in the world. It is not just a matter of there being justice in the world. It is also a matter of the way that things should be: there is going to be a price for everything that we choose to do in life... or in politics. In the process, individuals who have chosen to serve this country in government can lose their vision for what can be accomplished and squander the rare opportunities to make this country a better place in which to live, for all our citizens, great and small. That such a thing does happen... that is a great American tragedy.
posted by hfireman @ 10:25 PM
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