Monday, January 2, 2012

The Adams Conundrum

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

I’ve been thinking of that quote for a while now, gentle reader. It does a fairly good job of distilling the central problem with the office of the President of the United States ever since Saint Ronny of Ray-Gun cleaned the old peanut farmer’s clock in 1980. It is hard to take a political process seriously when a grade B movie star, and professional political crank, manages to grab the brass ring.

But it has been even more depressing this election cycle because of the clown car primary process the Republicans have inflicted on a weary republic. I watch these proceedings with an ever rising sense of panic and melancholy. Is this really the best we can do as a nation? Is this really the top tier of political professionals? I would not trust this lot of politicians to run a McDonald’s, never mind the Hyper-power that is the USA.

Granted, it has been darkly humorous to watch the Conservative base swoon over one white knight after another; only to have them self-immolate before even doing battle with the hated dragon of Multiple Choice Mitt Romney. From Bachmann, to Perry, to Cain, to Gingrich, and now to Mr. Man-on-Dog-Sex Santorum, it has been an exercise in flail and fail. Each of these prospect proved beyond a shadow of doubt that they “should on no account be allowed to do the job.”  You would do better with a trained monkey.

Not that the Donkey Party is doing much better. They have their own issues to deal with, most under the heading of Barack Hussein Obama. The rank ambition of the man, linked with absolutely no moral compass, has been disastrous for the Democratic Party.  Obama’s “lets make a deal” transactional style of “leadership” has perverted everything the Party of FDR stood for.

The J’ accuse against the Obama lead, and feckless, Democratic Party is long and depressing. The “Progressive” wing of that party has been especially inept. Faced with a President who is essentially doing Richard Nixon in black-face, the Democrats in Congress have caved on every center-right talking point their leader has ever uttered. Spineless leaders, Pelosi in the House, Reid in the Senate, have followed the President in a Bataan Death March further and further to the right. Like their President they have followed the corporate money, and kowtowed to the wishes of the New Robber Barons. The special interests of big pharma, big business, and the Insurance Industry were coddled. The masses were toss the odd stale crumb to feast on, but only after reproductive health rights were trampled on by the usual gang of sex-phobes and religious reactionaries.

That even a stalwart leftist and self-proclaimed “Socialist” like Bernie Sanders begged off a legitimate challenge to Obama’s rightward lurch tells you everything you need to know about the Democratic Party. The Republicans are right; the Donkeys are, “surrender monkeys.” The Democrats keep folding to the power of the Corporations, to Wall Street, to the rich and connected, to their donors. They cannot even be bothered to go through the motions of fighting Corporate power.

Thus Obama gets to rest up and keep his powder dry, waiting for Mitt the inevitable to emerge from the toxic swamps of the Republican Primary process. Is anyone else having a severe case of acid reflux over this result? Is anyone else utterly disheartened that the final results of this process, which looks like two political hacks with no core beliefs fighting an epically dirty campaign from May to November? I know I don’t want to watch this unravel. I would rather dig my eyes out with rusty spoons.

Yet that is what we as a nation are up against. It is the end result of an utterly corrupt system melting down into absurdity.  Team Obama is shooting for a one billion dollar war chest. Romney will likely meet or exceed that amount. It is an open auction for the Unitary Executive, and you are not invited. In this bidding war, ordinary citizens do not have a prayer of having any influence.

And what of the contenders? What type of person is willing to whore themselves out for a billion dollar price tag? What type of person is willing to dial for dollars, to beg and wheedle for filthy lucre? What kind of promises, subtle or not, will they have to make? How is someone willing to grovel in such a shameless way qualified to hold any kind of office, never mind the Presidency?

Mark Twain once observed that history does not repeat itself, but it sometimes rhymes. I’m seeing that. I’m seeing a rhyme with the “Bearded Nonentities” of the late 19th Century. Starting with Bush Sr. It has been a sorry lot. None of the post Reagan Presidents rose above the low bar of mediocrity, and one fell far below it. We are living in a contradiction not seen often; an executive that has almost limitless powers institutionally, run by men who’s effective power is weak. Maybe it’s because they should never had gotten the job in first place. “[A]nyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” Sad, but ever so true.

6 comments:

Cujo359 said...

The Democrats keep folding to the power of the Corporations, to Wall Street, to the rich and connected, to their donors. They cannot even be bothered to go through the motions of fighting Corporate power.

The real progressives surrender. The rest, unfortunately, are doing pretty much what they believe in.

Is anyone else utterly disheartened that the final results of this process, which looks like two political hacks with no core beliefs fighting a epically dirty campaign from May to November?

I have no idea what you mean. (Actually, I assume you meant anyone else, but I thought I'd throw that one in anyway.)

To me, the problem is that in order to run for President, you have to be rich. No, it's not the money that's needed, though that certainly helps, it's having the connections and ability to get financing. That's generally not going to be available to folks of ordinary means.

The trouble is, you don't get rich in today's America by serving the needs of the poor and middle class. You get rich by helping the rich.

Combine those two thoughts, and you're left with the realization that we always have to depend on someone who is rich, but for some reason or another understands that a rising tide really should float all the boats, to run for President. Roosevelts and Kennedys are extremely rare. Heck, I'm not even sure the Kennedys are the Kennedys anymore.

I thought I saw that trait in John Edwards, and I still think it's quite likely he had it. Unfortunately, he also turned out to be a fool.

So, that's where I am. I just don't see things changing through the normal political process, because that process doesn't work very well when it's the non-rich whose needs have to be attended to, particularly since it will be at the expense of the rich. The current elite are just too coddled and too soft to understand how bad things can be, and many just don't care. You can talk to them until you're blue in the face about what it's like to be you, but they won't listen, because it doesn't make any sense to them.

It's going to take something more. I'm just not sure how much more.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

"Heck, I'm not even sure the Kennedys are the Kennedys anymore." Cujo359

They never were Cujo359. The Kennedys were always a reflection of their hyper-ambitious bootlegger father's attempt to gain legitimacy via political power.

If you look at JFK's actual domestic agenda, he was following the New Deal orthodoxy of the times. Even Moderate Republicans of the time had bought into Keynes and the Welfare State in the early 1960's. JFK rationalized the tax code but did not do much else domestically. He had other fish to fry as his focus was on foreign affairs almost exclusively.

JFK's legacy on expanding civil rights and the Welfare State actually belong to LBJ, who got the deed done. JFK made the fine speeches and accomplished little; LBJ did the ass kicking and made it happen.

As for the present Kennedy clan, they are exactly what I expect from third generation inherited wealth-- degenerate clowns up to their eyeballs in unearned privilege.

Taylor Marsh said...

Wow, James, that's blow torch rhetoric at white hot intensity.

I thought I saw that trait in John Edwards, and I still think it's quite likely he had it. Unfortunately, he also turned out to be a fool.

I think this is dead on, Cujo359, and it's very, very tragic for so many reasons.

Cujo359 said...

Jack, Bobby, and Teddy were all a bit more than that. They were products of their times, and their ideas were formed by the twin disasters of the Depression and WWII. Still, they turned out to be people for whom service to one's society meant something more than just serving themselves and their friends. LBJ made the Great Society happen, but Jack Kennedy was the guy who had the dream. Neither one of them was an ideal person by any stretch, but I think what they accomplished speaks a lot about those times, and the people the leaders those times produced.

Unknown said...

I'm not the Kennedy Scholar that Taylor is, but I do know one thing about JFK: the hype of the Kennedy clan never met the reality of the Kennedy clan.

Both Jack and Joe went to war as did many other scions of great wealth did in the 1940's. Pappy Bush served gallantly, perhaps recklessly in the Pacific Theater as a Navy Pilot.

The men of the "Greatest Generation" were a breed apart, and can only be measured by their fellows. JFK acquitted himself well, showing real bravery and resourcefulness as a skipper of a PT boat.

But Kennedy's Senate service and his Presidency were a mixed bag. He lagged on Civil Rights, and was dragged by events into a reluctant stand. Many a time he was forced to enforce the prerogatives of the Federal Government, to enforce standing Federal law or Federal power against the nullification efforts of Dixie Governors. He did his duty, he stood firm for Federal power, but at best he was an incrementalist reformer.

LBJ on the other hand understood the toxic results of racism in his bones; which is how he could race ahead of MLK on civil rights. Being born and raised in hardscrabble Texas, he also knew poverty on a much more intimate level than JFK could ever dream of.

Now LBJ was never a beacon of light himself, he was every bit as ambitious and ego driven as JFK. But much of the Great Society was LBJ's idea, his passion, his attempt to out FDR FDR. And LBJ was not above exploiting the martyrdom of JFK for political gain.

Much of the legacy of JFK is actually a thin patina covering the machinations of LBJ. That is why the Kennedy clan blew a gasket when HRC did a little historical truth telling about how the Civil Rights acts of 64 and 65 were the result of MLK and LBJ's tag team efforts. That truth cut a little too close to the bone. That truth was a far too brutal ripping of the veil of the myth of JFK for the Kennedy clan to stomach.

JFK was a useful totem for LBJ to carry around. The Myth of the murdered martyr; young, vital, cut off in the prime of life, was excellent political theater. Who knows how many voters and politicians were beguiled by the mysteries of the Sainted Jack? It was damn powerful stuff.

But in the end it is more an act of faith, or more exactly an act maudlin nostalgia, to accept that myth without looking at the results of JFK's truncated presidency. And results matter. Results are all we can honestly go by.

And this is where it gets really complex. JFK dead, JFK as holy murdered martyr, accomplished so much more than JFK alive. How much of that was JFK's real legacy, and how much of it was a brilliant piece of smoke and mirrors actually performed by LBJ, is a matter of debate.

Me, I am always going to go with the live puppet master (LBJ) over the mute holy relic waved around by that puppet master (JFK); for good or ill. I don't like myths. I don't trust myths. I actually hate myths, they cloud our reason, prevent a real accounting, corrupt our political discussion. I have a real problem with the small cottage industry beavering away at not only preserving the myth of JFK, but enlarging it, expanding it. It's not really them, it's me. I see a sacred cow, and I have an uncontrollable urge to make hamburger out of it.