Bad People or Bad Process?
---
Which is the root cause of our increasingly failing government?
The best approach to answering that question is probably not by asking those very same people:
As if the budget process were a battle between 535 would-be St. Georges trying to slay a supernatural dragon that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and due to no one's fault. Or 535 Will Smiths trying to fight off the horrible aliens that no one knew were coming and certainly didn't invite to plunder our world. Or 535 ... well, insert your own analogy in the comments.
The problem is precisely that we are dealing with bad people rather than with an intrinsically bad process.
Here again we see the double-edged myth of the politician as "public servant" as opposed to power-luster, and as enlightened philosopher-king as opposed to medicocre semi-literate.
The process, meanwhile, would work just fine if it were in the hands of just fine people. Put 535 libertarians in Congress (not that any self-respecting libertarian would want the job) — as opposed to 535 Tom DeLays, Nancy Pelosis, Ted Stevens and Chuck Schumers — and the process would be an unmitigated success, year after year after year.
Of course, it's fair to retort that the "meta-process" of choosing the (bad) people who abuse the (not bad) process may itself be flawed. Fair enough. The saying, "I hate Congress but I love my congressman..." is not a sound foundation for our political process.
But if we're going to lament the failing of the system, then let's focus on the real problem with politics: the politicians.
The best approach to answering that question is probably not by asking those very same people:
"To see him putting the full weight of his office behind a specific proposal to create a constitutional line-item veto is thrilling to those of us who know when it comes to federal spending, it's not so much bad people as bad process," said Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus in the House.This is, of course, utter nonsense.
As if the budget process were a battle between 535 would-be St. Georges trying to slay a supernatural dragon that suddenly appeared out of nowhere and due to no one's fault. Or 535 Will Smiths trying to fight off the horrible aliens that no one knew were coming and certainly didn't invite to plunder our world. Or 535 ... well, insert your own analogy in the comments.
The problem is precisely that we are dealing with bad people rather than with an intrinsically bad process.
Here again we see the double-edged myth of the politician as "public servant" as opposed to power-luster, and as enlightened philosopher-king as opposed to medicocre semi-literate.
The process, meanwhile, would work just fine if it were in the hands of just fine people. Put 535 libertarians in Congress (not that any self-respecting libertarian would want the job) — as opposed to 535 Tom DeLays, Nancy Pelosis, Ted Stevens and Chuck Schumers — and the process would be an unmitigated success, year after year after year.
Of course, it's fair to retort that the "meta-process" of choosing the (bad) people who abuse the (not bad) process may itself be flawed. Fair enough. The saying, "I hate Congress but I love my congressman..." is not a sound foundation for our political process.
But if we're going to lament the failing of the system, then let's focus on the real problem with politics: the politicians.
Related Posts (on one page):
Posted by Kip on
7 March 2006
To comment on this post, please visit the new blogsite.
