In the early days of the Republic, the Founders recognized that the farmer in western Tennessee, the merchant in Savannah, and the miller in New Hampshire, consumed as they were by the day to day chores of their jobs and professions, had little time and less familiarity with law, and the complex decisions facing the new nation. They addressed this lack of knowledge by setting up a system of government that allowed the citizens to choose a representative to send to the nations capitol to study, and debate the issues of the day, making themselves expert on the intricacies of law and policy that would lead to informed decisions for all of us.
That thoughtful and well intentioned system is in full collapse.
We, none of us can command the knowledge of throw weights, Pakistani government politics, the effects of globalization on the teenagers of Bangledesh, the problems confronting foster parents, while carefully considering the implication of Wall Street bailouts. Indeed, that now seeming simple world of the late 18th century, driving the Founders to propose representation, has become so complex that even the best intentioned of Congress are very limited in their understanding of most things they are asked to vote on.
Like men and women everywhere, when confronted with complexity they seek to simplify their decision making by forcing existing information into patterns with which they are familiar. They view the language of legislation through the prism of their own bias, and political ideology. They force meanings into language which were never there. They mash together whim and belief while strutting around, flaunting their perception of power.
And, all the while, they confuse their narrow understanding with our desires, posturing about the "will of the American People", and insisting that they know what we want.
The "Poll People" do not help. Selectively massaging questions, and data, to conform to the perceptions of the politicians who fear exposure as ill-informed, more than any other single thing we can threaten.
Money buys men and women who agree to support the positions of their largest donors. Those same men and women then convince themselves, and their sycophants, that they are doing the will of the people, as they will insist if we question their intent. They seem to believe that they can tell us what we want, and what we want is what ever they are paid to deliver. And in the majority of cases, they are right. After all, who has the time, access to information, and genuine sophistication to evaluate every decision, every legislative venture, every geo-political event.
So we end up with a situation where in there is no penalty for lying. No penalty for inciting riots. No penalty for conforming to the demands of the Congressional Overlords of money. We are given only as much information, distorted by the personal biases and political needs of the Representative, as will serve their purpose.
This is not what the Founding Fathers intended. They intended that those who went to serve would serve our interests. They would tell us what we needed to know, educate us when an issue was complex, and represent our values and judgment when ever possible. It was never intended that they would place their egos, their pocketbooks, and their jobs ahead of the common weal.
Watching the Republicans in the House of Representatives, today, I am profoundly struck by how completely the Representative system is failing. By how people, deeply involved with their day to lives, have completely foregone any responsibility for knowing what their government is doing and, instead, swallow the sound bites and distortions, promulgated by the Overloards, that allow small men and women to perpetuate a laundry list of deliberate lies.
We, here in Virginia, so proud of going "Blue" in the Presidential Cycle, sat back and "Let Mikey Do It" in the recent Governor's race, sheparding in a crew of genuine lunatics intent on dismantling the Commonwealth. In talking with my neighbors about the crazy decrees emerging from Richmond I find most of them have no idea what is going on. The same things extend to Health Care, the Stimulus Package, the economy or the state of war in the middle east.
They feel no interest. After all, that is why they elect Representatives. And, when those Representatives fail to do the statesman like, the humane, the noble thing, they neither know, or care.
The Founders could not anticipate a country so large, so complex, so unwieldy, that no citizen could encompass even a small part of the demands on government. Throw in a group who wants to keep us ignorant by claiming that government is the problem, make us suspicious of everything we can not know, tell us what we need to hear to give them cover, and you have the perfect cocktail for the power binge of the past 30 years.
I have no idea how we are going to get ourselves out of this mess, but we had better start formulating a plan. Damned quick.