I ordinarily don't write directly about politics here, but since the American political system has devolved into the bastard child of Reality TV and Professional Wrestling, I decided to stand up as a voice in the wilderness to try to make a practical point about politics and the dangers inherent in buying into the whole "government is evil" crapola that billionaire plutocrats have been trying to sell us for the past forty years.
Craptastic Missouri Governor Eric Greitens finally resigned today, saving the state the time and trouble of impeaching him and forcibly removing from office. He was accused of a whole host of scuzzy activities, both personal and political, that were so atrocious that his own Republican party, which holds a veto-proof majority in the state General Assembly, wanted him gone. His rapid ascension to state-wide prominence and not-rapid-enough departure illustrates the point I want to make here.
Government is not inherently evil. Government is a necessity of a civilized society. Eliminating government is not a conservative value. Yeah, I said it. I'm a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is too moderate for my tastes. But conservative politics is grounded in a valid and rational point of view that goes back to the founding of the nation. There's a lot to be said about limited government and allowing economic markets to determine the course of a society. It's not all wrong, and socialism gets just as many things wrong and right from its point of view.
The point is that our government works best when the people involved in it have a vested interest in making it work correctly. When we have people representing multiple points of view with competing political philosophies, we have the ability to take the best from each faction and implement what works most effectively. Conservative capitalism works great when it comes to electronics, entertainment, automobiles, appliances, real estate, and a host of other consumer products. Socialism is most effective when it serves all people, rich or poor—things like police and fire protection, the military, roads, communication and energy infrastructure, as well as areas where it should exist, like education and health care.
But we don't have any of this today. What we have is angry people who are furious about a government that has been intentionally dismantled by a cadre of billionaires who control most media outlets and who have groomed an entire generation of stupid, vapid, hateful people who get elected to public office so that they can break the system all to pieces. Did anyone think that electing someone to serve in a public office that they don't think should exist was a good idea?
Look, I understand the frustration that so many people feel toward government, but we are looking in the wrong direction. The opposite of bad government is good government, not no government at all. The solution for bad political decisions is not to elect people who aren't politicians and who promise that, if elected, they're going to destroy the system from the inside. It may feel like a revolution at the ballot box, but speaking as a Missourian and one who works in the public sector, crashing our state government because it's not working to our optimum benefit is like taking a sledgehammer to your computer because it's downloading your movie too slowly...it may feel good for a minute, but you're still not going to get to watch that movie.
Greitens ran as a political outsider, and because of the rampant anti-government sentiment in our country today, he won election over a smart, competent, conservative Democrat with years of political and government experience. Electing outsiders is just stupid. I can't use any other word to describe it. It's like having a bad experience with a particular hospital, and instead of finding a better doctor or a better hospital, you hire a plumber to treat you the next time you're sick. It's like getting a bad meal at a restaurant and deciding to eat rat poison the next time you're hungry. It's stupid and counterproductive.
Most people used to get into politics out of a sense of duty and public service. I think many of them still do. Because of that, many of them are lawyers with experience at various levels of government
(governments deal with law...don't you want a lawyer who graduated from law school and passed the bar exam when you actually need one, as opposed to using your cousin Joey who watches a lot of "Law and Order" episodes?).
It usually starts small, with a city council term or a run for prosecuting attorney. From there, they advance to the state level, and a lucky few are good enough to make it at a national level. At least, they used to. Now, far too many who have never served in public office before are getting elected as "outsiders" who not only have no idea how the system works but also have no intention of making it work at all except for the aforementioned plutocrats who fund their election campaigns. It's literally like staffing a nuclear power plant with fast food workers.
I served for three years on my local city council almost 20 years ago. It was terrible. I couldn't get anything accomplished because of the complexities of government. I wanted to get better health care for city employees. We couldn't afford it, because governments can't spend more than they make in most cases. I tried to work for my constituents, but I often found myself without any allies because businesses are always better organized than citizens. Sometimes I had to vote in favor of the C-minus decision because the B-plus idea was impossible, or worse, to prevent the F-scenario from occurring.
There's an old cliche about never seeing how sausage or laws are made. That's bullshit. If you don't want to be eating rat turds in your sausage, tour the facilities. Likewise, if you don't want the government to make a bunch of lousy decisions that leave you worse off than before, stop electing incompetent neophytes who have no interest in making the system work.
There is always room for compromise between the right and the left. Most conservatives I know are horrified by school shootings and would like some actions taken to prevent them from happening. Most liberals I know are personally opposed to using abortion as a form of birth control and want to take actions to reduce the number of abortions that take place. On these, and on many other positions, there can be dialogue and progress that satisfies both side. There is no compromise, however, with an arsonist...all he wants to do is burn your house down.
Whether you consider yourself conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, this is all I really want to say: whoever you vote for, please make sure that he or she is educated, experienced, and committed to using the political system to improve the lives of those they serve. If the majority continues to elect people like Greitens who have no interest whatsoever in serving the public interest...well, we've already seen what we get, don't we? Politicians are not the problem; voting for people who are not politicians is.
