Between Barack and a Hard Place

Politics have become more difficult over the last years. The Democrats have become imitators of the old Progressive movement with high mindedness and the arrogance of leadership; the Republicans are carping and inept. But the real problem is our superficiality. Ours will be an election where crucial questions about the proper behavior of government will be decided on through the debates on birth control, talk show hosts' crudeness and forged birth certificates. I'd rather they go back to kissing babies.

In a way this degeneration is understandable: Obama offers a very polarizing view of the nation. His view is out of history. It is a different vision than Americans are used to historically and consequently inspires some significant response. The historical view of government in this country is that it is always a potential danger. Power in governmental form was seen as inherently risky, with the tendency of that power to expand and become oppressive. As the bedrock of America was liberty and freedom, this antagonistic view is understandable. Obama, and all Progressives historically, turns this on its ear. They think that the government has the potential to be a positive, productive force in the country. Obama's interview where he talked about the government's "negative" responsibilities--what, by the constitutional limits, it could not do--should be expanded and offset by positive responsibilities, what the government should do. This notion--government manned by intelligent, methodical men of vision and integrity solving problems--is the opposite of the view of the founders of the United States. As Madison said, "But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." This thinking--unusual in the Western world--makes up a large part of the thinking of the American citizens and it is both deep and profound. The problem in this election is that there is no articulate candidate who believes it, and there is no candidate who believes it who is articulate. Amazingly, the Madison position has become reactionary and stupid in the eyes of its opponents. Consequently the important debate degenerates.

Progressives do not learn from failure, they think only the wrong levers were in place or the right ones were not pulled hard enough. But very wise men thought "the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." That should be overturned with caution.