Two Steps Forward

Submitted to L.A. Times op ed, 10-24-06

A political tsunami seems to be headed our way. On November 7th a number of democrats, missing for years and presumed lost at sea, will ride the wave ashore, hoping to be swept into high office. Maybe so, maybe not. It's still kind of iffy. But if so, let's hope they do a better job of running the government than their predecessors.

The basic idea of government isn't all that complicated: take care of the big public jobs, leaving individuals free to manage their private lives, dispense justice where it is required and support where it is needed. Try to be fair, effective, and compassionate, while keeping your hands out of the cookie jar. How tough is that?

But corruption and waste infect our government from top to bottom. The administration’s open partnership with and unwillingness to regulate business are a massive drain on both the economy and our national character. Following the administration's lead, people accept corruption as the natural state of affairs, adhering to a philosophy of blameless greed and selfishness, embracing personal corruptions, large and small. Everyday business is conducted like a poker game, the basic rule of play being deceit rather than honor.

We have become, with notable exceptions, a nation of pampered, addictive consumers, concerned only with personal luxury, status, and convenience, anesthetized to the suffering of others. We were a great nation once but we seem to have lost our way.

It needn’t be so. We are, after all, a creative, determined people who may yet be able to reinvent ourselves. Two simple steps would dramatically reduce corruption and increase our chances of survival. The first step is publicly funded elections.

The most identifiable source of government corruption is the crippling influence that campaign contributors exert over elected officials. Why else would corporations spend hundreds of millions on both sides of the aisle but to gain unfair advantage? It would be naïve to think otherwise – it would be denial.

Publicly funded elections would provide each qualified candidate with an equal sum of money and a modicum of free media time. No other funding, corporate, private, or personal would be permitted. A one-month-only campaign would force candidates to focus on relevant issues, while giving incumbent legislators more time to legislate.

Publicly funded elections would create a level playing field for all candidates, presenting winners with fewer obstacles to serving their constituents. Political parties are not likely to cheerfully give up their traditional power-broking position as primary fund-raisers; it will have to be wrested from them. But this first, important step will heal a major sore on the political body.

Not long ago, with family in town from Chicago, I spent a day at Universal’s theme park. The first thing I noticed was that for $99, double the regular ticket price, you could buy a VIP ticket, allowing you to go to the front of the line on any ride and take front row seats at any show. Don’t get me wrong, I know we live in the land of Nod where more money buys finer clothes, faster cars, and fancier homes, but there is something fundamentally un-American about butting in line, even if you have paid for the privilege.

The second step is the complete elimination of the lobby industry. There is absolutely nothing in the notion of free speech that implies the right of greater access to legislators for the wealthy. With seemingly unlimited funds, lobbyists like Jack Abramoff successfully persuade legislators to favor clients as diverse as the tobacco industry, the teachers union, and Indian-owned gaming casinos, anyone who can afford their fee. Those who haven’t the price of a VIP ticket must wait at the end of the line.

Men and women float easily back and forth between elected office, corporate chairmanships, and lobbying jobs, holding sway over the nation’s lawmakers with promises of campaign contributions, golf trips, and future employment. It is unseemly, it is unfair, it is un-American. Let us be done with it.

These steps are not a panacea, and God knokws they will not be easily accomplished. For one thing, how do you define a “qualified” candidate? For another, where will this public funding come from? I actually have the answer to that question, but that’s another op-ed. In the end, though, whatever effort we have to make to achieve reform will be worth it, for us and for those who follow.

The Best Possible Face

Wednesday’s front page headline, Bush Signs Tough Rules on Detainees, got it wrong. It should have read, Bush Signs Death Tough Rules for Americans. The Military Commissions Act, which allows the president to accuse anyone, of being an unlawful enemy combatants, including US citizens, puts the T in tyrany. A bit overstated, you think? Let’s see.

Putting the best possible face on this legislation, let's imagine Mr. Bush actually has the country’s best interest at heart. What are the chances he will get it right? Judging by his handling of Katrina victims, the chances are less than none. The administration’s zeal to appear tough on terrorism, combined with its obvious incompetence, will doubtless result in the imprisonment of tens thousands of innocent Americans: some because they happen to be Muslims, some because they happen to share a name with a real suspect, some because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. All will lose the right to a speedy trial, good counsel, or even to see the evidence against them. They will be doomed, by good intentions and bad politics.

Putting the worst face on it, what if at some point in the future we find ourselves in a conflict with North Korea? Not too hard to imagine. What’s to keep a future president from sending the National Guard into Korea Town in Los Angeles and arresting all the Koreans as unlawful enemy combatants? That couldn’t happen in America, you say? Ask a Japanese friend.

In fact, what’s to keep a president from arresting anyone critical of his policy? Adams tried it. The law is our only protection. The law is the only thing we have, the only thing standing between us and the power of a despot. President Bush, with the aid of a cowardly Congress, has cut the heart and soul out of American law, and as long as we do nothing, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Amish Alchemy

Thank God for Vanity Fair correspondent William Langewiesche. For a minute there I thought I was plum loco. I'm reading blogs and telling people Vesuvius is rumbling, but everyone else is shopping at the Apple Store and swaying to the music of The Grove's computerized fountain. Langewiesche’s Sunday article, “Living With the Bomb,” confirmed my suspicions and echoed my sentiments that there isn’t much we can do about North. Political bluster will likely produce negative, and possibly disastrous, results. This ain’t Celebrity Poker.

To begin with, the president’s strategy of trying to enforce restricted membership in the international nuclear club is totally cold war, not to mention impractical and arrogant. The genie is out of the bottle. The technology for making these horrific weapons is pretty common knowledge. There is no way for us to keep determined nations from acquiring nuclear arms, and I don’t see Kim Jong Il caving in to sanctions any time soon.

The United States doesn’t hold the moral high ground in this argument anyway. We are the world’s leading arms dealer, supplying more arms to more people than all other nations COMBINED! Our particular brand of amoral, free market capitalism has turned the world into an armed camp while turning a hefty profit. Plus, North Korea may have a terrible human rights record but they aren’t occupying any foreign countries. The phrase “rogue nation” cuts both ways.

So, rather than trying to face down a less-than-stable government packing nuclear six-shooters, maybe Sheriff Bush should step back into the saloon, have a stiff drink, and practice a little Amish alchemy, turning grief into gold through the process of forgiveness. That’s what the real Christians do.