January 23, 2006
Messy But Not Broken
By Michael
Barone
It is not a
pretty season in our politics. Both our major parties seem to be
busy disqualifying themselves. The Republicans are desperately trying
to avoid getting caught up in the scandal of the disgraced and disgustingly
greedy lobbyist Jack Abramoff (his clients contributed to Democrats
as well as Republicans, they are quick to assert). The Democrats
are fortifying their reputation for being unwilling to defend their
country from its violent enemies, by attacking George W. Bush for
ordering National Security Agency electronic surveillance of calls
from al-Qaida suspects and by filibustering reauthorization of the
Patriot Act.
The Republicans
-- having succeeded in delivering on some of Bush's promises (on
taxes and education) and having flinched at others (Social Security)
-- are vulnerable to the charge that they have run out of ideas.
The Democrats, split on the war on terrorism between the Liebermanites
who want to win and the Murthians who want to quit, are vulnerable
to the charge that, since Bill Clinton decamped to Chappaqua,
they have no ideas at all.
Is our republican
democracy, then, entirely squalid? Not really -- or not so it
should bother us, says Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit,
the most prolific federal judge, who seems to write almost as
many books as he does judicial opinions.
In his 2005
book "Law, Pragmatism and Democracy," Posner nominates
as the Virgil to guide us through our "Inferno" and
"Purgatorio" the Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter.
Schumpeter -- hardly a sympathetic figure -- was an elitist who
believed the achievements of capitalism were threatened by the
greed and ignorance of the masses. But he supported popular electoral
democracy -- a controversial stand in the Mitteleuropa of the
1920s -- if only to give the masses a sense that they were in
control. "Democracy," as Posner describes Schumpeter's
view, "is conceived of as a method by which members of a
self-interested political elite compete for the votes of a basically
ignorant and apathetic, as well as determinedly self-interested,
electorate."
Posner revives
Schumpeter's theory of politics because he is annoyed that "without
it, there are no wholehearted academic defenders of the most successful
political system since the Roman Empire!" He brings to mind
Winston Churchill's quip that democracy is the worst system of
government, except all the others that have been tried over the
years.
"American
democracy," writes Posner, "enables the adult population,
at very little cost in time, money or distraction from private
pursuits commercial or otherwise, to punish at least the flagrant
mistakes and misfeasances of officialdom, to assure an orderly
succession of at least minimally competent officials, to generate
feedback to the officials concerning the consequences of their
policies, to prevent officials from (or punish them for) entirely
ignoring the interests of the governed, and to prevent serious
misalignments between government action and public opinion."
All of which
is a little too astringent to me. I prefer the uplift of Jefferson
and Lincoln, the Roosevelts and Ronald Reagan (who appointed Posner
to the bench). I note that voter turnout rose 16 percent from
2000 to 2004 and Bush's popular vote rose 23 percent: Our polarized
politics has increased participation, though not in the way most
of the academy and mainstream media would prefer.
But Schumpeter's
view has something to say for it. The Republicans may be facing
lobbying scandals -- but lobbying is protected by the First Amendment
(the Constitution gives us the right to "petition the government
for a redress of grievances"), and a government that channels
vast sums of money will always be so petitioned. The Democrats
may be grievously bifurcated between those who want to see America
win and those with what Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington calls
a "transnational" allegiance, but the Democratic Party
through its long existence has often been split.
A city on
a hill is, after all, a city -- and cities are messy places. As
are suburbs and farmlands. Americans are busy striving and risking
their lives and making the world better, as they have for 60-plus
years. There have been few if any pretty seasons in our politics
over those years: Go back, and try to find them. Yet the result,
pace Posner, is better than what Rome achieved. We'll get
through this season, too.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
