Power in Politics

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

-- from the King James Version of the Holy Bible, Mark 8, verses 36 & 37

Ah, finally!!!

People run for elective office to gain something called power; power is never the sole motive, but it is a large piece of it.  But really, do Senators and Congress men and women really have power?  When an elected official dials for dollars, he is trading his so-called power (to craft legislation) for money, as it is the fat-cat donor who has the power, not the elected official wagging his tail waiting for his master to toss him a bone.  He is a lap dog.  And a whore.

Bernie Sanders has power.  AOC has power.  Because neither one dials for dollars, small donors nationwide send them money.  These small donors don’t tell them what to do, they send money because they want them to act as they have spoken, and they do.  These are real leaders because they didn’t wait around to be told what to do, by fat-cat donors or by the people who crave real leadership.  And a lot of people like what they say.

Republican Speaker of the House (after an utterly unprecedented, and personally deeply humiliating, 15 roll calls) Kevin McCarthy traded all his power away in order to win the trappings of power, to be called Mr. Speaker.  But any one of these far-right flame throwers can call for a new vote and he could lose his powerless throne in a New York minute.  Speaker McCarthy has the title, but the flame throwers have the power.  Some power!

But these far-right flame throwers who withheld their YES votes until the end are NOT far-right, they are not ultra-conservative, they are not real conservatives at all, they are just far-authoritarian (“and what WE say goes; it’s my way or the highway”).

But, in the end, as I have claimed so often, the problem is the people – not Donald, not Marjorie, not Gaetz, not Boebert – as these small people were chosen by the people.  Donald by our Electoral College in 2016, Greene and Gaetz by huge margins, and Boebert by a mere 546 votes plurality, a 0.17% margin of victory.  With the people’s help, the Donald remains very powerful, as his followers keep sending him money (to help pay for his future legal bills), even when he tweaks them for being stupid, by selling NFT trading cards of his smirky face on top of super-heroes’ bodies, for $99 a pop.  Why do I say he is powerful NOW, without elective office?  Because if he told his “base” to take a long hike off a short pier, they would do it.

In a democracy, the people get the government that they deserve.  Because, finally, they are in charge; the people determine who will represent them in the seats of power (that word again).  Thomas Jefferson was concerned that the masses of people were not responsible enough to rule themselves (as were all our original founding fathers).  Jefferson wrote this (”If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”) and this (”I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.”).

Democracy is a faulty form of government; but every other system is a kind of tyranny.  We need more patriots, more people who LIVE their love of country.  Read Ben Paine.

I leave it to the people to govern themselves, even while they and their representatives are making a mess of it.