The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions.” (Federalist #62)
I don't like Scott Walker. I think he has been a
disastrously bad manager who has allowed his state to become become
a three-ring circus. And his union-busting in
Wisconsin has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility; going after collective bargaining is a ploy to attack a Democratic power base and increase the chance that Republicans will be elected in the future. He
has done a great disservice to his state by presenting this as something that
has anything to do with balancing budgets. I think he is a colossal jerk,
and I really hope that he wins.
I
want the jerk to win, not because I think he is better than the guy he is
running against. I think he is much worse. However, I believe, fundamentally,
that recall elections are, absent major felonies, very bad things. Furthermore, I believe that
the recall madness sweeping Wisconsin during this election cycle is based on
seriously incorrect assumption—one that is quickly becoming an article of faith
among Americans across the political spectrum. All evidence to the contrary, we
believe that our leaders are not responsive to the will of the people.
What
the current debt crisis shows us, however, is exactly the reverse: that our
leaders are excessively responsive to the will of the people. And this is a
problem because what the people want is more stuff than they are willing to pay
for. When people give us stuff and make us pay for it, we get mad and throw
them out of office. When people take away our stuff because we can’t afford to
pay for it, we get mad and throw them out of office. But when people give us
stuff and don’t make us pay for it, we give them power and let them keep it as
long as they want. An understanding of how to turn this characteristic into a
governing philosophy, I believe, was Ronald Reagan’s most enduring gift to the
American way of life. Run up the debt.
Fiscal responsibility is a good thing to talk about during an election, but it
has never actually been a particularly good political strategy. Most people who
are really serious about it never get elected; and the few people who do get
elected and try to deal with it usually get thrown out of office with all of
the subtlety of a mob hit. Deficit spending, on the other hand, is a great
political strategy. It gives us(or at least seems to give us) exactly what we
want: free stuff.
We now seem to be
groping towards a national consensus that the debt is too high and that we need
to do something about it. Wonderful. But there is no such consensus on what to
do, and both parties show every willingness to wrench every short-term
political advantage from whatever the other side tries. When Democrats suggest
raising taxes, Republicans go off the deep end and call them socialists; when
Republicans suggest deep entitlement cuts, Democrats take to the air waveand
scare senior citizens. The next election is already shaping up to be the
ugliest contest of scare tactics and demagoguery since, well, the last election.
We all know that this is disgusting, immoral, and counterproductive. But they wouldn’t do it if it
didn’t work. The great
tragedy of a democracy is that it gives us the government we deserve.
But in the rush to blame Democrats, Republicans, Obama, the Tea Party, and
every one else in Washington for the mess that we are in, the vast
majority of Americans have steadfastly refused to place the blame where it
belongs: squarely on their own pampered shoulders. For years, we have been
rewarding politicians who give us stuff and don’t make us pay for it. And we
have been punishing anybody who tried to do otherwise. Why would we expect that
they would act differently now?
Hopefully, Walker will win tomorrow with a big enough margin to prevent the
recall election from becoming a standard tactic to use against politicians who
raise taxes, cut spending, negotiate with the other side (not that the Walker
did any of this—it’s the principle of the thing), or otherwise engage in
activities that ignite “violent passions” and tick off “factious leaders.” It
will be impossible to expect politicians to act like grown ups if they can be fired
at any time by a collective temper tantrum.
