Notes of Concern…..
…..Jackson Blair
GOVERNED BY THE ELECTED OR THE APPOINTED?
Is the tail wagging the dog where you live?
We have recently had a number of elections concluded. The month of November in our society typically includes elections at one level or another. Watching all the supposed experts predict and then analyze, reading what the pundits had to say, and listening to my friends and colleagues, I determined to revisit my thinking on government and governing, to take another look at where I get my views and positions.
Although my undergraduate major was political science and I have worked to one degree or another on the local, state and national level, most of my life has not involved government service. I started out in a fairly liberal family, morphed into a very conservative young man, changed into a moderate Republican and more recently have seen myself as conservative on national defense and liberal on social policy.
When reviewing my walk it occurs to me that it pretty much reflects my personal experiences and needs along the way. You start out with little money and little responsibility. Then you are trying to get a foothold on a career. Along come wife and kids, and mortgage and car payments. Finally, you are rather settled and contemplating how to best spend your remaining years.
There is an old adage that says life should in three parts: LEARN-EARN-RETURN. I am clearly in phase three. So I want to share some thoughts on government in the hope that it will encourage my readers to revisit their own thinking about this important subject.
The old philosophers, many of who set the stage for the kind of government we have in our country, had some very basic and clear ideas. George Rousseau saw government as a social contract between the people and the government they selected.
John Locke’s influence on our Founding Fathers was enormous. He saw the community as perpetually retaining supreme power and fully responsible to save themselves from “the attempts and designs of anybody, even of their legislators..”
More recent heroes of democracy have spoken on this broad issue of government also. Here are some of the quotes with which I identify and you might also.
Abraham Lincoln warned us that “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.”
Senator Barry Goldwater, sometimes known as the “conscience of conservatives” in our country, said:
“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.”
On the other side of the spectrum, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said: “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
In the early years, Mark Twain wrote: “The government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.”
And finally, my favorite by George Jean Nathan: “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.”
When groups of people choose to live together in community they find they need some rules and regulations to govern their common life. They are supposed to select from amongst them the people they will trust with writing the commonly acceptable format for these rules and regulations and then applying those rules and regulations most fairly.
In this form the people are supreme. The decision on the acceptability of rules and regulations rest first with the people, and then with the representatives they select to enforce those rules.
It was always intended that somewhere along the line the representatives would be held accountable to the people for the representation they provided. If found lacking, the people were to replace them. If found true to their responsibility, the people would retain them for another “contract”.
In our federal government we actually defined the terms of that representation. Senators now sit for six years only because the people elect them and representatives for two years for the same reason.
I suggest to my readers that over the years we have become complacent about our role in this, the role of appraiser, evaluator and commender or terminator. People who no longer do what they said they would do, who no longer represent what we think, continue in office because we do not do our civic duty and cast votes.
At the local level it should be ever so much simpler for us. We know our representatives. They are our neighbors. We see first hand what they do, and what they do not do. We complain about their actions or praise their actions over coffee in restaurants, at VFW halls, and in churches. Yet somehow, a large percentage of the complainers and praisers cannot be motivated to vote.
So often our leaders tell us they are the recipients of bad information, that they make decisions on information that is later proved false. I hear over and over that a president or governor is not being well served by his advisors. We seem to have a tough time expecting our leaders to be in charge. We often see them as pawns of an established group of worker bees when they should be the Queen bee!
In these situations we are asked to believe that it is appropriate for the tail to wag the dog! Absolutely, and completely, a false and dangerous assumption. For instance, General MacArthur thought little of President Truman. A fatal mistake for MacArthur who lost his career and a possible future shot at the presidency. Who brought General MacArthur to heel? The former clothing shop manager in Missouri, Harry S. Truman, who understood that the President called the shots, no matter what his background. There are many similar instances in American history. Those we elect must take the position seriously and demand that everyone else respect the decision of the people as evidenced in the election.
I hope you will consider this a call to action.
If you like what government is doing you need to present yourself at the polls and cast a vote in favor of those who represent you.
If you do not like what government is doing, you need to present yourself at the polls and register your
dislike by voting for new representation.
How should you evaluate the people you put in office?
1. Do they do what they told you they would do when they asked for your vote?
2. Do they appoint people to work FOR them who carry out what you want done?
3. Do they provide leadership or do they follow non-elected functionaries who work for them?
4. Are they the right people for future challenges that you anticipate will need to be faced?
Try your hand at this. Apply the above four questions to any of the following: Town Government, State Government, Federal Government and then look at what you write down. Your answers to those four questions will be your guide to how you should vote in the next election. If you keep these questions handy, and add to them as you see fit, you will have a great guide for any future election.
Good luck. The future of our way of life from little towns to Washington, D.C. depends on how we each react to this kind of thinking.
