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11/21/2005: "Can our government be effective?"

I weary of the day to day, minute to minute revelations and attacks between who said what to whom in the Federal Government. Is this the way to run a country? Come on people. Now Bob Woodward was told by someone before Libby knew about Plaime. He didn’t tell anyone, or at least he didn’t write about it. And yes, he has not let on until this week. I am sure it is important to those people who are looking for political advantage in the fight.

I guess I should be in there rooting for the good guys and cheering every spot of mud that the bad guys get on them. I have been called much too liberal (not in sense that liberal is used in the current mass vernacular, but in its more disparaging sense.) in my feelings about the political infighting. The truth is that the good guys don’t seem all that good to me, and the bad guys, well there supporters have aright to be represented in their government also.

Yes I think that the things that the current Administration is doing is damaging, and dishonest and it does violate my values and ethics. I think that the current empire is bad for America and bad for the world, and particularly bad for the people who get killed. I certainly that we must fight and challenge greed and incompetence. If I were in Congress I might be swimming in the mud of intercene warfare myself. But I hope I would be able to rise above it. I believe that the way that Rep. Kucinich as deported himself is closer to the way I would behave.

One of the reasons that people support John McCain is not that they agree with him on particular positions. In fact, several people who do not believe that we should send more troops to Iraq (something McCain is currently proposing) still are inclined to support him. Why, because he has been able to position himself outside of the fray. He will sometimes criticize the leadership of his party, and sometimes praise his opponents. To my mind this looks a lot like opportunism and image making, but it gives him the appearance of substance.

For those of us who believe that the government, as the administrator of the collective resources and priorities of our society can be a force for humanity, compassion and improvement in people’s lives, doesn’t it make sense that we should strive to make that government effective?

The current fighting and politics of distruction creates events like the recent shutdown of the state government. I have been told that partisan attacks, like hard negotiations, drives out all other forms of interaction. That position is just too cynical for me. Do we have to become our enemies in order to prevail over them? Perhaps so if we see our goal as to prevail over them. Perhaps if we our goal is to live with them we might act differently.

You see, I am reconciled to the fact that I will live in a community with people who do not agree with me. I work with them, go to temple with them, and, of course, have political discourse with them. We setup governments to represent the views of all of the people. The legislature, congress city council etc. should contain representatives of all of the people who live here.

The current government is a corruption of that. Some of this is systemic to the two party, winner take all, single endorsement, kind of elections that we have. A lot of it is the influence of money, pollsters, mass media and major corporations with financial interest in decisions. The very forces that keep this system from reformation are the forces that are causing the problem.

We have Federal Agencies that are so corrupted by their close involvement with money interests that they are creators of the problems they are charged with solving. Among these are
The Department of Energy – controlled by the Energy industry –
U.S. Forest Service - Controlled by the Timber and Recreation Industries
Department of Ag - controlled by the Agribusiness
EPA - Pesticides, Automobile and Energy Industries
FDA - Pharmaceutical Industry.

That doesn’t include the agencies that are just run by incompetents like FEMA etc.
Now it seems to me, that fixing these agencies is the kind of thankless, unglamorous job that really needs to be done if the government is going to be worth our tax dollars. This really will require speaking truth to power. Presidential appointments should be based on ethics, ability, integrity, and experience, not just political patronage. Now I am not saying that loyalty and being in agreement with the President should not be a factor in appointments, just it cannot be the only criteria.

It is vital to the health of our country that the government start to govern, and stop serving as a method to fleece the citizens, either through taxes or through graft.