Healthcare, Government, and the Whole Catastrophe

A couple of months ago a few friends and I met for pool and discussion.  We followed up with a series of emails, here edited, anonymized, and transcribed.

Paul:
“Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others”, Winston Churchill

I think Churchill was sharing the outrage that we all expressed tonight.  I think however that it is a misreading of history to think that our government today is any more corrupt than democratic governments of other times.  The quote attributed to Bismarck about sausages and laws would have been from almost a century and a half ago.  A study of American history would find long periods of corruption that make today’s mild by comparison.

I think that what distinguishes our times is that we have much greater and more immediate exposure to the existence of this corruption.  Is this a good thing?  A bad thing?  I’m conflicted.  I’m afraid that the reaction to the knowledge of this corruption, not that it is any worse than other times, will lead to what we are seeing from the Tea Party followers.  For after all, it isn’t that “democracy is the worst form of government”.  It is that, “except all the others.”  It is in other words the best form of government; a dull tool but the best tool and most importantly the only tool we have.

It is an interesting fact of history that revolutions do not occur when people are most oppressed but rather less, when they have the leisure to reflect on just how oppressed they are.  I see a parallel in this wave of knowledge, or at least reportage, on the corruption of our government.  This may spur a revolution but the only ones picking up arms are those who would reduce the utility of the tool of democracy.  I have therefore put my outrage aside; I have fear.

Respondant SB:
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."  oft attributed to Edmund Burke, but in fact there is no clearly definitive original by Burke.

In discussing our fear and outrage, perhaps a lose framework would be useful whereby we might determine what, if anything, we agree on and what, if anything, good men such as ourselves should do:
   1. Agreement of broad principles
   2. What is the essence of the problem....the causes, not the symptoms
   3. Brainstorming options for meeting the challenge, changing the course of history, etc...
   4. What could we support doing
   5. What will we actually do

Here are a few of my rambling, perhaps shocking, opinions:
   1. Agreement of broad principles:

         1. Democracy is best -check
         2. Current process is corrupt and broken - check
         3. It was ever thus - check (however here I part with you Paul in this regard: while previous levels of corruption may be equal to today's, there is a major difference: by and large the government in previous scandals still functioned through the corruption and/or the dynamics of "life in general" was such that, excepting maybe Pearl Harbor, it could go on even with government gridlocked.  Don't have the facts of the early days of the Great Depression in front of me and there may have been a significant lag in government functioning in the early FDR years, but soon enough there was at least some action...and from the action some certainty and trust.  What is completely broken today is not just the level of corruption but both the fact of and psychological/economic impact of complete uncertainty and distrust...something not present during earlier episodes at anywhere near these levels.  Distrust grew out of the Vietnam, Watergate, etc and has continued to grow....but now that is coupled with truly scary international and domestic circumstances...mix that with uncertainty over what IS the new tax policy and what IS the new health reform impact and what IS the stability and governance of our major financial institutions, etc......not a good mix, and I submit....as new in context as it is dangerous.)
         4. Neither party is either all right or all wrong - though I am tired of hearing it, I sometimes wonder of both sides are not to some degree accurate about what they say about the other.  personally, I am not so much interested in Democratic or Republican success as I am in seeing "the worst form of government" work for we the people before present circumstances become catastrophic...and I don't think either side has all the answers

   2. What is the essence of the problem - what are we outraged about?

         1. As mentioned above - trust.
         2. And from lack of words and actions that are trustworthy, lack of some level of certainty in what is and what is coming...
         3. Need for transparency, compromise, empathy, civility, etc. that would require a change in how some of the current process is undertaken and the rules by which institutions function.  The Senate as near as I can tell is just about totally broken as a functioning body.
         4. The lobby-go-round - perhaps in some form of truth in advertising we should demand an influence control breakdown for our elected officials similar to the nutritional breakdown required on food packaging: This candidate is controlled: 28% by Finance industry, 15% by the defense industry, 15% by big oil, 12% by insurance and 5% or less by combinations of lawyers, teachers, doctors and bartenders.
         5. Implications for recent Supreme Court decision giving corporations carte blanche in a way that may push us toward some form of "except for the others"
         6. If we don't figure out a way to turn outrage into meaningful action to help "the problem" we are outraged about, then either continued gridlock, or the resulting Tea Bagger nut case revolution, will bring us to a place that is cause indeed for fear.

   3. Options for what we the people do about it

         1. Law of holes - stop digging.  Hit the reset button.  Just stop...until we can figure out something is not the equivalent of just doing the same thing and expecting different results.
         2. What blunt tools are available to us?  The greater and more immediate exposure is an opportunity.  I think even the people of Nebraska rebuked Nelson when they found out what he had done.  Sunlight is an amazing antiseptic.
         3. Transparency in the process...there is a requirement that some legal documents have a "plain English" version (e.g., pension Summary Plan Descriptions)...no reason bills could not simultaneously have similar versions published for x time prior to straight up or down votes
         4. Line item veto for the President
         5. Minimize lobbying...no idea how. I would love to see a TV program that actually showed a demonstration of a lobbyist in action.  Maybe have a congressperson and a lobbyist sit at a table and then have an announcer introduce the action: "And now for those of you who don't understand exactly how lobbying works and why it has such a huge influence on our government, lobbyist X will now lobby Congressmen Y here on camera so you can see it in action.  We asked Congressmen Y before the show how he would vote on Proposition Z.  We will ask him after he has had a dose of lobbying how he will vote and why."

   4. What could I support

         1. As spoken by others, until the Democrats are willing to embrace cutting government spending and the Republicans are willing to embrace increasing taxes...to fix this giant hole we are in that is getting deeper, I would be willing to support a 3rd party.  One that would hopefully bring independents and the center 20% or so of both parties along.
         2. Willing to consider many ideas as long as I believe it would truly effect some lasting change and not just reinforce the intensity of the current useless mutual blame game.
         3. Things that would help promote and give a voice to different grass roots movement...based on rational, moderated response that demands change, fueled by some of the same sense of frustrations that the Tea Baggers feel, but with a more reasoned, inclusive vision.   

As I write that last blurb I realize I am expressing the hope I had about Obama.  Perhaps the best action is to get him to emulate Toyota: recall the crap that is not working, fix it, and try to regain the lost trust with the honest, open leadership the brand was supposed to deliver.

Look forward to the next round...slings and arrows, anyone?  ;-)

Paul (Out of band to SB)

An offline comment or two.  First I want to apologize for “rebuking” you in public; the heat of the moment got to me.  I’m sorry.

Interesting you should quote Burke.  I was recently about a third of the way through “Reflections on the Revolution in France” before I left it in a bar or somewhere; this showing at least that I’m willing to listen to informed conservatives.

Another interesting quote is from science-fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin who talked about the “banality of evil”.

More (possibly) considered reflections (possibly) to come.

Respondant SB
No apology needed...I thought your challenge was spot on.  What indeed should be done and how?

I share the sense of fear...which in part fuels my outrage...which is significant enough to motivate me to some as yet to be defined level of action.

Respondant JR
thanks for kicking off this whole exchange (addressed to SB BTW, {sigh}). is this what is called a chat room?  thank you also for the thought you have put into your extensive posting.
fear and outrage.
i find myself lacking in both  departments at present.
my greatest fear days occurred when richard nixon was elected president and dr strangelove became secretary of state which presented the spectre to me  of american totalitarism and nuclear warfare. these concerns were paramount in my psyche before the day of his inauguration on which day i was incarcerated while in the army to spend two months awaiting my court martial on drug charges. i felt a cosmic connection between the two events
re outrage: we have had conservative government in america since this same 1968 election up to  this last blessed election, carter and clinton representing the right wing of the democratic party. thus me being pissed off about the state of government in this country is baseline for me. much of the tea-party-republican outrage is a result of them not getting there way right now to which they have become accustomed.
but they are getting their way: gridlock obama and the government until they are back in control. they are not interested in health care reform. they are insured and comfortable. they are governmental minimalist. the less action on the federal level the better off we all will be they tell us.
i said it saturday and i mean it. you want more government action and less gridlock elect more Democrats.  no more handjobs given to the likes of ben nelson, joe lieberman, and the pharmacuetical industry because we don't need their votes.
corruption. ubiquitous on both sides of the aisle. especially acute now.? maybe but i doubt it. and then  there is those 182 member states of the UN i was referring to on sat.(paul, you weren't at the table at this point). how many of these governments are corruption free. some? none? how many are a lot worse? most of them?
and the republican response: this most recent obscene supreme court decision unleashing the coffers of corporate america in the name of freedom of speech. that's the obscene part.
but you know what? we get the government we elect. the government is not the core problem. our corrupt nation is the problem. driven by consumerism, greed, me-firstism, short term gratification and a bunch of other moral shortcomings.

Respondant SB
(To JR) I certainly agree with your final sentence or two.

In the words of former governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox, when asked about improving the abysmal conditions in the penal system, he replied he could not be expected to bring about prison reform until he was given a better class of prisoners to work with.

In fact I have been mulling over thoughts along the lines of your closing comments in considering what might be done about present problems and am convinced that a revival of basic virtue - not "more Democrats"...nor any of the ideas I previously considered -  is the only realistic answer.  Only that would change the raw material of both we the people and the government we deserve.  If the raw material is corrupt, as you describe and with which I agree, then little in the way of new elections, new rules, new debates will make much of a difference.

This nation did not rise to freedom, economic and military might and then try to decide what virtues, if any, it embraced.  It started with deep and passionately argued and held convictions of virtue, of ethics of character and work, out of which grew its freedom & might.

My fear & outrage stem from observations of the erosion of this nation, and what that means to my own son, as I watch the erosion, as you point out, of those values.

Therein, I believe, lies the problem - all else is symptom.

So, while there may be practical things that could be done in the political sphere, I have come back to my true roots here in considering all of this.  This is not a political or philosophical or electoral issue, it is a spiritual issue.  The spirit of this nation is sick, poisoned one might say, and until that is righted, all else is in vain and will profit but little, but Godliness is profitable unto all things.

Putting churchianity and other forms of hypocrisy aside, one of the great benefits of Christianity is that it is practical as a tire tool....it just works.  If virtues of honesty, charity and service – the golden rule - were more uniformly practiced we would not be having this conversation about what’s wrong with our country.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God and the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world.

And that is not to try to blur the separation of church and state.  If the people of this country were, in spirit and in truth, more right with God – a little less wrapped up in the self-serving pride & vanity wisdom of this world - then the separate operations of government would be working just fine.

People get the kind of government they deserve and if the government is rotten then the only way to fix the government is to fix the people.

From the book of Jeremiah:
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:  Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence?

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.  As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

From the Leonard Cohen song, Suzanne:

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your (and apparently Mark Twain's) wisdom like a stone.

And no, since this message of Godly repentance for salvation, in one form or another, is widely broadcast already, I do not have any ideas at the moment on what to do that they may have ears, and hear.