FAITH IN GOVERNMENT

For those of us who view life with a broad brush, what would constitute a good year in 2014?  An accelerated economic recovery?  Progress in the Mid East and a lowering of tensions in the Far East?  Immigration and tax reform?  My vote, by a mile, would be a restoration of the people’s dwindling faith in the political institutions which form the basis of our constitutional republic.

          Many events in 2014 are either pre ordained or beyond our control. The churn of the economic cycle will guarantee that our economy makes progress in 2014, no matter what political party is in power.  On the other hand, international events, despite America’s diplomacy, are largely loose cannons and not subject to influence.  Immigration and tax reform are but pawns on the partisan political battlefield.  And therein lies the problem.

          Those matters over which our political institutions do have control are not being addressed.  The national debt, saving Social Security and Medicare, growing inequality, serious jobs programs, education reform, physical and mental health programs, gun violence, replacement of an aging infrastructure and the above mentioned immigration and tax reform issues are permitted to stand unattended and get worse, year after year, decade after decade.

           The last 5 years have been singularly abysmal in addressing these problems.  The transformative election of President Obama has become a lightning rod sending the minions of ideologs of all stripes to the barricades.  Congressional and presidential approval ratings are rightly at all time lows. The middle class with its common sense and balance on most issues is by some accounts restless and discontent.  By other accounts the middle class is disappearing.  By all accounts it has lost faith in the ability of its political institutions to make rational decisions for the good of the country.

          Liberal progressives on one end of the stage and conservative populists on the other will rarely be happy with how government works. For both extremes ideology trumps incremental change and compromise.  There is nothing wrong with this as long as those on the left and right are seeking to move the middle by a degree or two and the middle controls the agenda.   I myself am a progressive and believe my voice is needed to balance the other end of the political spectrum.  What is new and troubling is that the majority of patrons in the audience, the middle class, believe they are not being well served.  In fact they are often shut out of the national political process, a dire development for our republic.

The middle class are correct in concluding that small groups of the ideologically motivated are directing the play.  Moderates see their elected representatives buying into these small ideological groups by courting the large pools of campaign financing and politically active supporters available at the fringes.  When being elected becomes the goal rather than governing, it is impossible for the majority of Americans to benefit.  For example it has become increasingly unlikely for a moderate republican or democrat to win a federal election because the fringes control the primaries.  The result is do nothing political institutions, with brief periods of crisis management and brinksmanship.

What is to be done?  Middle class voters should remember that faith in political institutions without action is dead.  Don’t wait for that hated political pollster on the telephone with his loaded questions.  Go out and make some noise.  Moderate voters must help moderate candidates take back the primaries.  Working on a campaign must receive the same priority as the Cub Scouts or PTA.  Independents must join a political party and vote in the primaries.  The middle class must shout down the noise coming from fringe cable and radio programs. It should insist that their political actors represent their broader interests and not waste the people’s time presenting angry soliloquies designed to encourage a tiny base and to inflame the opposition’s tiny base.

A word about state and local political institutions. For the most part, both are healthy and thriving.  State governments must deal with balanced budgets and are much closer to the social problems that require attention.  Local government must deal with fixing the roads and removing the snow and garbage.  Politicos find it difficult to draw battle lines around such tasks.  Moreover, the closer voters are to their political institutions, the easier to elect officials with shared practical goals.

The Majority of Americans, who want to see progress on important national issues in 2014 need to stop becoming irrelevant and to take action.  Circulate a petition at the book club, quilting circle or grange meeting.  Tell your elected representatives what you expect them to accomplish in 2014.  There is little that can be done about the economy or the Mid East.  On important domestic issues progress can be made.  Moderate Americans can take the country back from the fringes and again control the national agenda.  What a hopeful wish for 2014.