Politics: Go, Team, Go!
Burning Giraffe over at National Polemic recently manufactured a brilliant analogy regarding our political process. In his article, he refers to Americans as “the only people in the world who treat their political system as if it were a sports league or a reality tv program. They take a minimal interest in how government works, but they root passionately for their team.”
While I clearly perceive the prominent political ignorance so popular with today’s partisans, never before have I considered it in those terms. Sports fans are very nearly what we have. However, even the average Yankees fan knows the rules of the game - the average voter does not.
Imagine a man watching a football game. He stares, completely unaware of the rules of the game, but wholly desiring victory for his team. His gaze is fixed intently on the field. Suddenly, the players come alive with movement. Opposing players collide with each other. Others run down field. An object is thrown in to the air - and caught. Someone in a striped shirt makes an arcane gesture. The man looks to the score board - 6 points for the opposing team. He shrieks in anger, unable to grasp why the points were awarded to the other team. Obviously the opposing team cheated, but how?
This seems to be a fairly accurate portrayal of the current state of things. The solution to all this? Stop spectating, learn the rules, and get in the game!
July 18th, 2008 at 10:56 am
It is frustrating that learning this system and understanding the “Aristocracy of Pull” that exists in our government is, quite possibly the best we can do. However, I think we need real reform in order to simplify government with the intent on making it efficient and efficacious. First, we need as much disclosure of information as possible about the money that floats in and out of Washington, the programs that money is poured into, and the effects those programs actually have. Secondly, we need to institute the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax will simply how taxes are paid, provide citizens with 100% of their earnings, and welcome in everyone person who spends a dollar in the United States into the process. It will remove the power of the Congress to manipulate industry through the US Tax Code, which is where most of their power rests. The US Tax Code is a petri dish for corruption. Third, we need to remove all barriers to third parties. Every nationally registered party deserves to have a place on the ballad. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should allow for public funding of political campaigns in order to create fiscal equity. Let the Parties succeed based on their own merits. Finally, we need a massive, national grassroots campaign to only support politicians who support balanced budget initiatives. Any politician that believes that the government should be able to spend more than it makes, should be voted out of office immediately.
We need real reform in this country, because the rules of the game are a murky fog of contradictory and arbitrary laws designed to make understanding the law and even obeying the law utterly impossible. Again, the NFL makes for an excellent analogy. There is plenty of room for corruption in officiating. Holding and “illegal contact” takes place on every play in the NFL. So it all comes down to when the officials choose to call the players on it. These decisions are arbitrary and reactive, sometimes emotional or personal, and it takes away from the perceived fairness of the game.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
There is plenty of information disclosed already. It does not help if the people will not pay attention.
The Fairtax, however, would get their attention pretty quickly. “Why did the price of everything go up since yesterday?” “They raised the tax rate.” “Again?!” Our government’s objective of controlling more and more of our income would quickly become apparent to all people.
More choices in party would help, but would not solve our current problem of voters who are fiercely loyal to a party, but have no idea why. A better option might be to have no parties at all, but that would be hard to enforce because of the 1st amendment (freedom to assemble). A system like the U.K. might work, so parties like the Green Party or Libertarian Party would get at least a little say in Washington.