Today is January 25th, 2009. Barak Obama has now been President for five days, and has already started to undo the plicies of his predecessor. Between setting a date for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Prison, and removing former President Bush’s ban on abortion funding, the long-awaited change promised by Obama on the campaign trail is finally here. But new residents in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are not the only things America needs. While past articles have focused on voting, the media, and third parties, this essay will discuss arguably the most important area where the United States needs change: the way people think about politics.
Every four years, America elects a new president. Every two years we install new Senators and Representatives. But, as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The majority of the new leaders we elect come from the same two parties, groups with ever-increasing similarities, as previously discussed in part I of this series. The campaigns often employ the same people, even if those people are well known for being underhanded in their political strategies (such as Karl Rove, who has been a fixture in Republican politics since the 1970s and has a long history of employing questionable electioneering tactics; see this 2002 CounterPunch article, as well as his wikipedia entry). Politicians on both sides consistently spin their previous statements, as well as those of their opponents to gain an advantage and appear more palatable to the general public. While one can look at any election to see this, it is evident even in this past 2008 Presidential election. While then-Senators Obama and Clinton had harsh words for each other throughout the primaries, the various critiques and insults hurled toward each other simply disappeared once the Democrats agreed on a presidential candidate. Immediately after, erstwhile-Senator Clinton turned around and began marching in lockstep to Obama’s beat. For his part, once he won the election, Obama moved to make Clinton Secretary of State. This would have been unsurprising if not for President Obama’s consistent ridiculing of Clinton’s foreign policy experience during the primaries (“What exactly is this foreign policy experience? Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no.”). David Gergen, an advisor to presidents from both sides of the aisle, had this to say: “That was then; this is now. Campaigns are ever thus… Generally speaking there is a recognition that campaigns bring a certain amount of hyperbole, and when it's over you try to find the most talented people you can find to work with you." While it is refreshing to hear Mr. Gergen acknowledge what we all know to be true, it would be even more refreshing to hear honesty from candidates during the elections. There is something to be said for a person changing his or her mind on a subject, but it rarely seems that this is the case in politics. More often, I am left feeling as though I have been lied to; it is as if you asked someone if pepperoni pizza was good, and he or she told you it was the worst food ever created, and then you turned around to see them eating a slice. “Well,” they might say, “there was a certain amount of hyperbole in what I said about the pizza.” Every time a politician goes back on a campaign promise or position, I feel tricked. It would be nice to hear any candidate or politician say what they actually think about any issue, and then stand by their statement. It is disappointing that when debates are televised, CNN and other stations have to have ‘fact-checkers’ standing by to tell the American people what parts of a candidate’s statements were and were not true. Even now, after being commander-in-chief for only five days, President Obama has already received an exception to his own law. After signing an executive order on Wednesday prohibiting lobbyists from working for the President in sectors they have previously lobbied in, the administration has already issued a waiver for William Lynn, a candidate for Deputy Secretary of Defense. You can watch the story here, or read about it here. To me, these are signs of how far America has fallen from its noble origins, and by undermining his own rules, Obama is already following in the footsteps of both George W. Bush and Richard Nixon by placing his administration above its own laws.
The core problem, as I see it, is that politics has become a kind of game, where election to office is a figurative trophy to be won, and the major political parties are the opposing teams. Politics has become the biggest sport in the United States, and the Democrats and Republicans are the Yankees and the Red Sox of the game; different in name only. With election to office no longer about who is more qualified to lead and now about which team is winning, politicians have no reason to be honest with the American people. There is no incentive to take an unpopular stance, or admit that your opponent is a capable leader; the idea now is to get into office by any means necessary, including outright lying about anything. This ‘politics is a game’ attitude is why we see elections full of doubletalk and positioning. As it is now, modern attitudes toward politics have forced voters to sort through a quagmire of sidestepped questions, reversed positions, and outright lies. Elections almost seem constructed to confuse the voters and blur the issues; certainly not the way to choose capable leaders.
An extension of this thinking helps lead to the various scandals that rock the political world every so often. When politics is only ‘a game,’ it ceases to exist as anything but a vehicle for personal gain. In the last few months alone, you can see two excellent examples of this kind of thinking. The first is former Senator Ted Stevens, who effectively sold his political views to an oil services company. “Prosecutors said Stevens ‘took multiple steps to continue’ receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp., and its founder, Bill Allen. At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for ‘multiple official actions.... knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period.’ VECO's requests included funding and other aid for the oil services company's projects and partnerships in Pakistan and Russia. It also included federal grants from several agencies - as well as help in building a national gas pipeline in Alaska's North Slope Region, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.” Instead of acting in a way that he thought would best benefit Alaska, and the United States as a whole, Senator Stevens followed VECO’s lead. The strange thing here is that Stevens’ net worth, at least in 2003, was $1,417, 013; he could have gotten by fairly well without the gifts.
A second example of the blatant use of public office for personal gain is, of course, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has been arrested by the FBI “on corruption charges, including the allegation he schemed to benefit from his power to name President Barak Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, after years of invesigation.” Blagojevich planned, it appears, to auction off Obama’s Senate seat, saying “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.” Blagojevich is also alleged to have attempted to “engineer the firing of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board -- which has written unfavourably about the governor -- in exchange for providing the newspaper's parent company help in the sale of Wrigley Field...” as well as to have “withheld $8-million in funding for a children's hospital while trying to leverage a political contribution from its chief executive officer.”
Blagojevich’s actions are appalling, but not altogether unexpected. Just like Ted Stevens and many others in the past, the Governor saw his office only as a means for personal gain and aggrandizement, an outgrowth of the ‘politics is a game’ attitude. This is what America needs to change. Politicians need to realize that their offices are not proverbial golden-egg-laying-geese, or simple trophies to put on their mantle, but that they are responsibilities to the people of the United States. The citizens who put politicians in office expect them to lead the nation, not take advantage of their position, and when they do not take their jobs seriously the system gets abused and the average person gets manipulated and lied to. Of course, the average citizen needs to do his or her part to change the system too; taking politicians to task for abuses and lies, learning about the candidates and government as a whole, and using critical thinking, instead of blindly following our leaders, or clinging to irrational beliefs (like ‘Obama is a Muslim’). The fabled government "of the people, by the people, for the people" needs its people to take charge and fix the system. To put it simply: America as a whole needs to see politics not as a game, but as a service to the rest of the nation.
Every four years, America elects a new president. Every two years we install new Senators and Representatives. But, as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The majority of the new leaders we elect come from the same two parties, groups with ever-increasing similarities, as previously discussed in part I of this series. The campaigns often employ the same people, even if those people are well known for being underhanded in their political strategies (such as Karl Rove, who has been a fixture in Republican politics since the 1970s and has a long history of employing questionable electioneering tactics; see this 2002 CounterPunch article, as well as his wikipedia entry). Politicians on both sides consistently spin their previous statements, as well as those of their opponents to gain an advantage and appear more palatable to the general public. While one can look at any election to see this, it is evident even in this past 2008 Presidential election. While then-Senators Obama and Clinton had harsh words for each other throughout the primaries, the various critiques and insults hurled toward each other simply disappeared once the Democrats agreed on a presidential candidate. Immediately after, erstwhile-Senator Clinton turned around and began marching in lockstep to Obama’s beat. For his part, once he won the election, Obama moved to make Clinton Secretary of State. This would have been unsurprising if not for President Obama’s consistent ridiculing of Clinton’s foreign policy experience during the primaries (“What exactly is this foreign policy experience? Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no.”). David Gergen, an advisor to presidents from both sides of the aisle, had this to say: “That was then; this is now. Campaigns are ever thus… Generally speaking there is a recognition that campaigns bring a certain amount of hyperbole, and when it's over you try to find the most talented people you can find to work with you." While it is refreshing to hear Mr. Gergen acknowledge what we all know to be true, it would be even more refreshing to hear honesty from candidates during the elections. There is something to be said for a person changing his or her mind on a subject, but it rarely seems that this is the case in politics. More often, I am left feeling as though I have been lied to; it is as if you asked someone if pepperoni pizza was good, and he or she told you it was the worst food ever created, and then you turned around to see them eating a slice. “Well,” they might say, “there was a certain amount of hyperbole in what I said about the pizza.” Every time a politician goes back on a campaign promise or position, I feel tricked. It would be nice to hear any candidate or politician say what they actually think about any issue, and then stand by their statement. It is disappointing that when debates are televised, CNN and other stations have to have ‘fact-checkers’ standing by to tell the American people what parts of a candidate’s statements were and were not true. Even now, after being commander-in-chief for only five days, President Obama has already received an exception to his own law. After signing an executive order on Wednesday prohibiting lobbyists from working for the President in sectors they have previously lobbied in, the administration has already issued a waiver for William Lynn, a candidate for Deputy Secretary of Defense. You can watch the story here, or read about it here. To me, these are signs of how far America has fallen from its noble origins, and by undermining his own rules, Obama is already following in the footsteps of both George W. Bush and Richard Nixon by placing his administration above its own laws.
The core problem, as I see it, is that politics has become a kind of game, where election to office is a figurative trophy to be won, and the major political parties are the opposing teams. Politics has become the biggest sport in the United States, and the Democrats and Republicans are the Yankees and the Red Sox of the game; different in name only. With election to office no longer about who is more qualified to lead and now about which team is winning, politicians have no reason to be honest with the American people. There is no incentive to take an unpopular stance, or admit that your opponent is a capable leader; the idea now is to get into office by any means necessary, including outright lying about anything. This ‘politics is a game’ attitude is why we see elections full of doubletalk and positioning. As it is now, modern attitudes toward politics have forced voters to sort through a quagmire of sidestepped questions, reversed positions, and outright lies. Elections almost seem constructed to confuse the voters and blur the issues; certainly not the way to choose capable leaders.
An extension of this thinking helps lead to the various scandals that rock the political world every so often. When politics is only ‘a game,’ it ceases to exist as anything but a vehicle for personal gain. In the last few months alone, you can see two excellent examples of this kind of thinking. The first is former Senator Ted Stevens, who effectively sold his political views to an oil services company. “Prosecutors said Stevens ‘took multiple steps to continue’ receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp., and its founder, Bill Allen. At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for ‘multiple official actions.... knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period.’ VECO's requests included funding and other aid for the oil services company's projects and partnerships in Pakistan and Russia. It also included federal grants from several agencies - as well as help in building a national gas pipeline in Alaska's North Slope Region, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.” Instead of acting in a way that he thought would best benefit Alaska, and the United States as a whole, Senator Stevens followed VECO’s lead. The strange thing here is that Stevens’ net worth, at least in 2003, was $1,417, 013; he could have gotten by fairly well without the gifts.
A second example of the blatant use of public office for personal gain is, of course, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has been arrested by the FBI “on corruption charges, including the allegation he schemed to benefit from his power to name President Barak Obama’s replacement in the U.S. Senate, after years of invesigation.” Blagojevich planned, it appears, to auction off Obama’s Senate seat, saying “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.” Blagojevich is also alleged to have attempted to “engineer the firing of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board -- which has written unfavourably about the governor -- in exchange for providing the newspaper's parent company help in the sale of Wrigley Field...” as well as to have “withheld $8-million in funding for a children's hospital while trying to leverage a political contribution from its chief executive officer.”
Blagojevich’s actions are appalling, but not altogether unexpected. Just like Ted Stevens and many others in the past, the Governor saw his office only as a means for personal gain and aggrandizement, an outgrowth of the ‘politics is a game’ attitude. This is what America needs to change. Politicians need to realize that their offices are not proverbial golden-egg-laying-geese, or simple trophies to put on their mantle, but that they are responsibilities to the people of the United States. The citizens who put politicians in office expect them to lead the nation, not take advantage of their position, and when they do not take their jobs seriously the system gets abused and the average person gets manipulated and lied to. Of course, the average citizen needs to do his or her part to change the system too; taking politicians to task for abuses and lies, learning about the candidates and government as a whole, and using critical thinking, instead of blindly following our leaders, or clinging to irrational beliefs (like ‘Obama is a Muslim’). The fabled government "of the people, by the people, for the people" needs its people to take charge and fix the system. To put it simply: America as a whole needs to see politics not as a game, but as a service to the rest of the nation.
