(Note:
This is the first segment in a three part series.)
Is elective office still the noble calling to public service it was once intended to be? Or has it evolved to more of an establishment
paradise for the ruling class, with ease and plenty far removed from the day to
day lives of ordinary citizens?
As the summer of 2012 begins to wind down,
the November US presidential election beckons on the near horizon. It’s an excellent time to take the long view
on the state of our American democracy.
At last look the latest public opinion polls
indicate that members of US Congress experience an approval rating hovering at
or near 9% among likely American voters.
The statistic is startling, the lowest rating in fact since statisticians
began to record figures. Long in the
making, the phenomenon has been the subject of ominous warning bells ringing out for more than two centuries.
But let’s begin with the present. What began as a call to selfless public duty
for the good of the nation has evolved through the course of US history. Today, unfortunately, public service is no
longer seen as a selfless commitment to the welfare of others. It is more like
a self-centered establishment paradise. The reasons are apparent.
Ordinary citizens may wonder what it’s like
to live in an establishment paradise.
Candidates for public office in quest of so called public service make
lofty promises to their courted constituents.
But are these promises real? Or
are they merely illusions, or expectations?
Or are they kept only “up there” in the establishment paradise?
During the 2008 presidential campaign,
then-candidate Barack Obama lamented the high personal cost of aspiring toward
a life of public service. Red lights,
traffic jams, slow, methodical passages through airport security, missed
flights. Worst of all, there would be
little to no time for family.
Of course, after the election things would be
much different. Traveling in a limousine
is really much more convenient. Nobody
steps on your toes, pushes you from behind, pokes you in the ribs. Every light is green. You travel fast without stopping. Traffic police and security salute you. And there is Air Force One.
For US Congressmen, the change is perhaps
more subtle but equally sweeping. Through
the generosity of prior legislators, sort of as a present to themselves, upon
election, members receive Cadillac-type health insurance coverage that
is not the privilege of all citizens.
They also receive a federal pension which sets them up financially, for
life. Despite an obvious conflict of interest, nor are they prohibited from
investing in industries and businesses they are called upon to govern. They are wined and dined by paid lobbyists,
special interests and political action committee interests whose funding
sources need not be disclosed under the present law.
And they use the power of the incumbency to
retain and cement their vaunted status in public service. While the selfless George Washington created
the precedent in the executive branch to limit the presidency to two successive
terms totaling eight years, US
Congressmen face no such limitation.
Many “run” for office seemingly forever, transforming public service
into an exclusive property right with hereditary status.
In the third branch of US government,
the federal judiciary, members at the highest levels are appointed for life. And so it is not
inconceivable that still-in-his-early-50s John Roberts, new Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court and author of the landmark 2012 decision upholding the
2010 Affordable Care Act, can retain his position on the high court for 40
years or longer.
Over time, this is how elected representatives in a nation of laws become alienated from the nation and themselves. Laws are
passed to serve the special interests, the ones pouring money into the personal
comforts of public servants, at the expense of the general welfare and public
interest.
They give well-worn speeches on the yet
elusive progress toward paradise for all citizens. But that paradise is but a fiction for the
masses of ordinary citizens. The
establishment paradise has been constructed and evolved in such a fashion that
it is to remain that way in the name of the established order, conservatism and
preservation of the powerful status quo.
As a result, the ordinary citizen's faith in the democratic process is tested.
Boris Yeltsin may not be a familiar name to
ordinary American citizens. But his name
is very familiar to ordinary Russians.
Mr. Yeltsin had a unique vantage point in Russian politics. In 1981 he was “elected” to serve on the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ,
which was the highest party
authority between governing congresses. Then, after the fall of the communist
government in 1989, Mr. Yeltsin was elected by popular vote as the first
president of the new Russian
Federation , an experiment in democratic and
market reform, in which position he served from 1991 to 1999. He spoke of the changes he foresaw with the imminent
collapse of the former Soviet system:
Of course, our establishment cannot run away and
hide. The moment will come when they
will have to give up their private dachas (government owned vacation homes) and
answer to the people for having hung on to their privileges tooth and
nail. Even now some of them are starting
to pay the price for their former “establishment” status. The massive defeat at the polls suffered by
party and government officials who stood for elections is the first warning
bell for them. They are now being forced
to take steps to satisfy the demands of the voters. But they make concessions reluctantly and
grudgingly; they are so wedded to their privileges that every possible
contrivance, including bald lies and sheer deception, is employed by them. They will, in fact, do anything to slow down
the process of reform.
-Michael D'Angelo
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