Wednesday, July 14, 2021

The View From 30,000 Feet

I don't have a dog in this fight of which system of voting is better, but the argument against it being made here seems to be predicated on this point: There is no system that is going to protect society's "common good" from the selfishness of individuals. That's how the American model was sold to us, and after four years of Trump we're all asking: "How did that work out?"

I'm open to the argument that the Gingrich/Goldwater effect is in play, that after Goldwater and since Gingrich selfishness has become the raison d'etre of political participation.  But part of that backlash is not just because Goldwater lost l, it is because LBJ took the shackles off of non-whites in this country (and rightly so).  That backlash spawned Gingrich and the bait shop in Arkansas (ask yer Grandpa!) and Trump and Proud Boys and 1/6/21.  The line is pretty damned direct.

Not that it wasn't coming anyway.  LBJ did the right thing; but the rest of us, by and large, didn't.  We were content to let him do it for us (sound familiar?).  A system of "checks and balances" is supposed to ameliorate rank selfishness, but is that system preserved or skewed by the Senate filibuster rules?  Is it preserved or skewed by voter ID laws, ignoring the 15th Amendment, criminalizing voting behaviors that are perfectly benign (like voting when you have been banned from voting because of your criminal record.  Why the hell does the "common good" need laws like that to protect itself?)  Even the system itself is only preserved if people choose to preserve it.  That's what's upset so many people about Trump:  he exposed the reality that this is not so much a system that protects us, as it is a system we must protect.  

This is not to say we are in danger of losing America.  80 million Americans turned out last No to oppose just that possibility.  Sure, 71 million voted for the former guy, but roughly 13% more voted for the victor.  And besides, incumbency is a helluva drug.  "Don't switch dicks in mid-screw" was the profane slogan in '72, when it referred to "Dick" Nixon and wasn't meant as an argument for re-election.  But democracies prefer stability:  it's seen as central to the "common good," and so incumbents have a built-in advantage.  Not that, in my lifetime, it helped Jimmy Carter or GHWBush; but it more often does than doesn't.  That's not an unalloyed good either (4 more years of Reagan and W weren't all that good for us).  But the shellacking Trump got was an honest-to-God repudiation.

Besides, selfishness is pretty much the way all things human play.  My concern for your well-being can be well-intended; it can also be misguided, even paternalistic. Then again, my concern for you is my concern for me, too; absolute selfishness is absolute disaster.  Ask any child who learned to mature into an adult (Trump is the exception that proves the rule).  If I'm sensible enough to realize your well-being is connected to mine (what else is government for but the preservation of well-being?), then the system works merrily.  Of course we're finding out how my well-being is connected to yours, with stories like this:
Turns out people who can find better work than being your poorly paid servant will take that work! Who knew? Maybe it's time we paid more for meals out, rather than purchase them with the labor of the poorest among us? That's one lesson we might learn now; the other you'd have thought we'd have learned already, though: That's the question, isn't it? And the only answer I have is:  selfishness. Now, do we have a system that will purge that from the body politic, or at least suppress it sufficiently to render it harmless?  You'd have thought self-preservation would do it, but that only works individually, and too often after the fact: To be fair, these people weren't necessarily selfish; they just made unfortunate decisions. They don't deserve the consequences of their errors, but those consequences came anyway, because basically the universe doesn't care and deals harshly but fairly in terms of consequences. I sympathize with these people; but covid doesn't. If you want to see selfishness about this subject, look no further: The GOP in Tennessee I can blame; and I can wonder at the voters of Tennessee who will probably keep those people in power (I don't see a groundswell of political resentment in Texas after February, despite the fact 150 of us died and almost all of us lost power in the worst cold in recent memory).  But ideology and "owning the libs" and "true conservative" are still powerful motivators for too many voters.

Selfishness is a helluva drug.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)