The American experiment of a democratic republic has survived only because it has reformed several times.
It is time for this old, imperfect but necessary workhouse of governance to heal itself, if you will, rebuild, again.
The system is under attack from within. The oft quoted line from Friedrich Nietzche’s Twilight of the Idols, is appropriate here, “Out of life’s school of war-what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.”
We’ve reached what should be the terminus of “professional politics.” It is time for the rise of servants.
The nation is in an imbroglio. We’ve permitted it. For too long over the last two centuries we watched and gave sanction as the public service of governance morphed into the business of government.
I don’t think the founders saw the running of a nation as a career path. We are divided, distracted, poorly governed, and a long way from a careful, creative, efficient national ship of state. The desires of human ego, caprice, and the power of money chasing money and influence has weakened us, perverted law, justice and our national character.
The evidence is before our eyes. The ideals of the founders are stained by those without principle, bereft of honor, who fail to serve but who seek to perpetuate power for their own ends.
The most miserable are thieves. The office occupied by Lincoln is now disgraced by an historically diabolical fool. The legislative branch is incapable of addressing fundamental citizen needs; as much time is spent on fund raising as doing the people’s business and it’s lost the ability to negotiate, compromise, and rise above party demands. The supreme court has been politicized and some justices have been bought.
Both major parties are in disarray. The federation that had been the Republican party is captive to people who do things that are anathema to what had been the values of conservatives, libertarians, “business Republicans” and national security mavens.
Democrats remain a big tent that has become a rumble arena. They lack a unified vision, a cohesive national organization, and suffer the greatest weakness, being a minority with no big stick, no power, no influence.
I see no evidence now, but a successful political movement, or party direction, should be REFORM. Reform of how government works. Reform as to how the national legislature listens to citizen’s needs, makes them priority, passes legislation addressed to voter’s well-being and interests and that are not bought by special interests, lobbyists and the big money influences who hover around the public trough like pigs in a feeding frenzy. The seasoned journalistic mantra has survived because it is true, “follow the money!”
It is perhaps impossible to elect and then stand up a government dedicated to serving the safety and security of citizens when the very selection process, the election, has become a money guzzling industry of its own. Campaigns are not about the heart and soul of America, they are machines designed to package and sell a product. It is imperative that Reform comes to campaigns. The greatest reform would be to limit campaign spending, funding and advertising. Advertising is not the truth, it’s a snow job.
The people who are attracted to such palaver, are not the kind of people America needs in tending to our governance. The rise of the public servant, dedicated citizens, term limited, restricted from the perks, (privileged insurance, insider trading, fortune building PACs, etc.), freed from spending most of their time raising money, and willing to learn and work.
The majority of those residents of the federal legislative class have, in the last years, failed to demonstrate they can serve the interests of a nation being caved out by industry and job losses, opioid epidemics, a middle class being squeezed, epidemic homelessness, unaffordable medicine and living standards, decisions between paying rent or buying medicine, infrastructure in deterioration, children failing to learn, being harmed by social media and algorithms, communities savaged by nature and fire being delayed in rebuilding, vital research being eliminated, or the rise of an authoritarian cult of personality that aims to bring down and destroy the federal system while practicing larceny and grand scale corruption in front of our eyes. Such a system demands Reform.
Democrats and Republicans hold the blame. Newt Gingrich unleased a cancer that made it wrong to negotiate or compromise or work out a deal. What had been two centuries of horse trading, jawboning, scratching each other’s backs, politicking over poker, or at dinner parties gave us the nation that healed from civil war, extended freedom , liberty and voting rights, answered the call of two World Wars, helped build the peace, bring international stability, create a middle class, host the best universities and research in the world, create miracle medicines, put humans on the moon and lot more.
The last Democrat to occupy the White House evinced perhaps the quintessential Washington “know how,” but in the bubble of power, his own sense of his self and the advice of those around him, caused him to commit the all too typical Washington sin, failure to elevate the common good, the commonweal over your own interests.
I know that age and experience provide wisdom and insight, but there comes a time when another generation needs to lead. That is part of the Reform that is needed.
Power does corrupt and we need a period of reform that reminds us where the power truly dwells, or should. In you and me. We hire, we fire. We need to get back to basics.
It is time for a mood, an appetite and a season of reform, in government, in how we select those who come to serve.
The nation has experienced lows, and been desperate periodically over the last 250 years. Below is a brief overview of when and how periods of reform have saved us to stumble on. There are matters we need to visit again, or to draw from.
The antebellum period, before the civil war was an age of reform. Enlightenment ideals and religious renewal empowered reformers.
1820’s to 1860:
Abolitionism sought to end slavery.
Women’s Rights were put on the agenda. The Seneca Falls Convention empowered the suffrage movement.
Temperance was a huge public movement, in response to epidemic alcoholism and the destruction of families and lives.
Education Reform laid the foundation for free public education and to raise the education of citizens to cope with economic changes
Prison and Asylum Reform raising the idea of rehabilitation of criminals and to set up state hospitals for the mentally ill, taking them out of prisons.
Political machines, monopolistic trusts, huge economic inequality, along with the disruptions of rapid industrialization and the growth of cities threatened America in the Gilded Age
1870’s to 1890’s
Civil Service Reform ended the corruption of the spoils system, winner take all. A merit base civil service was created.
A Populist movement demanded economic relief, agrarian reform, regulation of the railroads that essentially stole land and extorted towns, the direct election of US Senators.
Government became a tool to stop the excesses of industrial capitalism, to eliminate political corruption and to widen access to the political culture. It was the Progressive Era
1890’s-1920’s
The cornerstone was Teddy Roosevelts trust busting, shifting the federal government from a hands-off approach to being a regulator of the economy. Breaking up monopolies, trying to protect free market competition and to prevent the uberwealthy from having outsized control and influence on politicians. The “Square Deal” prompted federal regulation and oversight, the beginning of consumer protection, food, drug and meat inspections, labor rights, trying to block anti-union corporate leadership. A department of Commerce and Labor to police working conditions.
Women’s Suffrage-the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
States were given the right to referendums and recalls.
Franklin Roosevelt’s handling of the Great Depression brought a massive expansion of the federal government’s role in all aspects of business and life. It was the age of the New Deal
1930’s-1940’s
Economic-Social Security and unemployment insurance
Labor Rights-National Labor Relations Board
His programs revolved around Relief, Recovery and Reform
Many job creation programs were started
Economic Recovery and Industry programs were begun
Finance and Banking reform, with new programs
Housing programs were launched
Faith groups, political leaders, grass roots organizations contributed to the historic Civil Rights Movement attacking systemic racial segregation and discrimination.
1950’s-1960’s
The Civil Rights Act of 1964—no discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
Voting Right Act of 1965-banned literacy tests and provided federal oversight of voter registration.
More recently there have been attempts to reform political campaigns and to make government more transparent.
1970’s forward…
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), something I used as a journalist.
The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), an attempt to stop the influence of big and dirty money in politics.
The Environmental Protection Agency, now in the midst of being gutted and perverted.
This is by no means exhaustive in detail but it’s a snap shot to demonstrate how we periodically return to the aspirational goals and objectives that launched us and that has provided a kind of moral road map of how to make it work, fairly and honestly.
We are in a state of failure. We have our own personal behaviors and ignorance to blame. The politicians we have elected are not the cause of our illness, but they are reflective of who we are, what we value, the level to which we pay attention, what we really care about.
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Cassius says to Brutus
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in our selves…”
Put another way, as Pogo paraphrased Navy Commodore Perry,
“We have met the enemy and he is us.”
See you down the trail.
