As we celebrate the Fourth of July, who can argue that our democracy is working the way the Founders intended? And who can deny that most of the blame for dysfunction must fall to the Republican Party?
So begins
Eugene Robinson's column in today's Washington Post, whose title I have borrowed for this posting.
To be appropriate for the day, Robinson reminds us that the man commanding the forces already battling the British Army for our independence at the time the Declaration was issued, George Washington, would in his Farewell Address after serving two terms as our first President, express his distrust of political parties, because
as they alternated power, parties would act in “the spirit of revenge” — rather than, presumably, in the best interests of the nation. The “disorders and miseries” that resulted, Washington feared, would inevitably threaten democracy.
Robinson does not mention that Washington was already seeing this during his second term, with the development of what would eventually become the Democrats and the Federalists, led respectively by Jefferson and Adams. It is perhaps worth remembering that when the former, while serving as Vice President, defeated the latter, who had succeeded Washington after serving as his Vice President, the outgoing Federalists tried to stack the government by creating and filling multiple positions for Magistrates for the District of Columbia, an action that could have lead to the wholesale impeachment of the so-called "Midnight Judges" but instead lead to the seminal Supreme Court case of Marbury v Madison.
Please keep reading.
Robinson writes that for most of our history the major parties, despite severe differences, "have acted in a spirit of shared enterprise" with some exceptions of which the most notable is the build-up to the Civil War, in part because there could be no compromise over slavery, a "fundamental" issue.
Robinson argues we have no issue so fundamental in today's dysfunctional government.The Republican refusal to cooperate on behalf of the nation could be rooted in narrow political self-interest or, as he writes,
as much of the overheated GOP rhetoric suggests, they are acting with the vengeful animus that Washington feared.
Certainly we are aware of that rhetoric. it has from the very beginning encouraged and sought to benefit from those who argue this President is not legitimate. His citizenship has been questioned. His religion challenged - despite the fact that the original Constitution in Article 6 makes clear that there can be no religious test for any office under this Constitution. We have had overt statements from the likes of the Republican leader in the Senate that his primary goal was to make sure this President did not succeed. We had on inauguration night in 2009 a meeting of Republican leaders in which they conspired to undermine this Presidency.
Robinson's column is powerful and to the point.
Allow me to offer some snippets of his language:
Republicans have paralyzed our government in a way that would have shocked and depressed the Founder
This is dangerously close to nihilism.
Robinson constrast the unwillingness of Speaker Boehner to bring up an immigration reform bill that he knows would pass the House that has already passed the Senate, reminding us that the current immigration crisis on the border cannot be addressed without such comprehensive immigration reform, and looking at that refusal to address the issue asks
Is this what the Founders had in mind?
Yes, it is true that a majority of the House Republicans oppose immigration reform, in part because too many are either themselves Tea Party types or else fear the challenges they might face in primaries - challenges that are the direct result of having manipulated fears for partisan political advantage and position, as most reading these words here know all too well.
Robinson does not think the Democrats are perfect, but provides the contrast with Nancy Pelosi's leadership as Speaker, when
she made certain that bills funding the occupation of Iraq made it through the House, even though a majority of Democrats bitterly opposed the war.
Robinson reminds us of the tradition of cooperation in our past, mentioning three issues in his penultimate paragraph - maintaining and building infrastructure, avoiding any threat of default, cheering good economic news such as yesterday's unemployment numbers, and then concludes like this:
But now, one party — the GOP — cares more about ideology, reelection and opposing Obama’s every initiative than about the well-being of the nation. It is scant comfort, on Independence Day, to remember that the republic has survived worse.
It is a powerful column.
What Robinson fails to address is the media's role in facilitating this dysfunction. Perhaps because major media is itself narrowly held and often by corporate interests more interested in advocacy than in true reporting, we have allowed a distortion of our political and legal processes that has resulted in an economy and a polity that serves only the interest of a few.
We are no longer a democracy, although we have not yet completely lost the notion.
It is not clear that we can even remain a Republic except nominally, if the current trend is not swiftly addressed.
That is why what happens between now and the first Tuesday after the First Monday 5 months from now may be critical, not merely to this nation, but to the future of the world, given the size of our economy and the impact we are having upon global climate change.
Read the Robinson column.
Remember why, despite all its flaws, the Democratic party is still somewhat dedicated to the notion first expressed by the first Republican President
hat government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Peace.