If you believe, as I do, that the country is facing a long list of huge problems, and that Congress is doing very little of substance to solve any of them, then what is the root of the problem? We often hear that a lack of bipartisanship is the issue, but what does that really mean? Just that the 535 people already in Congress can’t work together, but what forces put those people in the position to stymie the problem-solving role of government?The problem is that our elected representatives no longer represent people as much as they represent an ideology. And ideology, like theology, has been argued for millennia without a winner emerging. There never will be a winner. There will only be losers, and we are them.
Why do our representatives represent ideology rather than people? It is at least in part, because of gerrymandering. This is one of the great examples of the laws of unintended consequences at work. Politicians, in an attempt to make their own offices more secure, have created Congressional districts that resemble metastasizing cancer cells or Jackson Pollock paint splatters more than they do a rational association of citizens with common problems and concerns.
Instead of districting so that areas with common issues and problems (suburban, urban, industrial, farming, etc.) are together, districts are created by politicians, that lump together people who are disposed to vote similarly, or by purely racial categories, regardless of how geographically remote they are from one another.
This lessens the practical common bonds among the constituents but allows their natural cultural and ideological commonalities to run free. So instead of debating the practical merits of policies and how they will affect our lives, we argue their ideological merits – a kind of massive, communal circle-jerk.
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David Brooks’ column today offers a fascinating look into why our leadership class in all fields is suffering from diminished respect and support from the people they lead. I highly recommend it.
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The Plan (an update). I was distressed to discover yesterday that Glenn Beck’s next book due out in August will be titled "The Plan." I’m going to have to find a new name for my scribbling on the process of developing my new life plan. Suggestions are welcome.
I learned about Beck’s book from a piece on the Daily Beast that was an excerpt from a new book called “Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America,” which appears to skewer both left and right.
Here is a really scary fact of Beck’s own admission: he smoked pot every day for 15 years. Instead of telling us smoking pot would make us heroin addicts, perhaps our parents should have warned us against becoming Glenn Beck. It might have been more effective.
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