Framers Intent

Given that this is an election year, it seems like a good time to think about the idea of context. It is easy to get caught up in the specifics of whatever issues you personally value with regard to parties or candidates, we all know what the "hot button" issues of the day are in 2012. Gas prices. Unemployment. Military spending. Abortion. In truth, these issues have been on the table my entire adult life in one form or another. The details change. But the major concerns in American life remain somewhat constant. Of course you have some new challenges. Immigration. Internet regulation. Healthcare reform. But in many ways, the core economic and value propositions in elections remain the same for most Americans.

We are told during every election cycle, that Americans "vote their pocketbooks". We are told that. Every. Single. Year. By every media source. And from a statistical perspective, that may be true. Certainly the basic notion of survival is always paramount. It's simply Darwinism. It's difficult to care about the space program when you can't afford to fill up your car. That said, it seems to me that in many ways, the two major parties are so similar in the execution of their specific policies, we have reached a point in time where it is basically irrelevant which party wins. There are hardcore Republicans who will swear on a stack of the bibles they so love to quote that Obama is a Marxist who is destroying capitalism. And there is the left, who shamelessly race bait every single public policy issue to the point that one might think that the Emancipation Proclamation had never been signed. These toxic elements of American politics provide such great political theater, that the important issues of the day never receive the full attention of the electorate.

The most bothersome aspect of this public bare knuckle boxing match we call an election cycle, is that whatever the issues of the day appear to be, they are for the most part dictated by either media outlets or party mouthpieces. We are TOLD that these are the important issues. And they are important. But what is more important is taking a few moments to ask yourself how these issues came to be issues. I mean, lets face it. Can you, as an individual, solve the debt crisis? Can you achieve peace in the Middle East? Can you make labor in America more affordable? No. And that is the underlying premise of representative government. The promise that somehow, the conglomerate is more powerful than the individual. So we elect people to execute our collective will. And by proxy, they are supposed to implement ideas that benefit the constituency. That's the idea.

So take a moment and ask yourself, do you feel represented?

I, for one, do not. My first clear memory of an election was Carter beating Ford in 1976 when I was in fourth grade. One of the major issues of the day, was oil prices. This was the first time I heard about OPEC. I remember people being frightened that we, as a nation, were going to run out of gas. People actually thought that. Then you had the issue of the Middle East. The Camp David Accords, where Carter presided over Sadat and Begin's attempt to reach some level of understanding. Women's rights were on the forefront, and I became interested in Gloria Steinem for the first time (although probably for her cool hippie hair and aviator glasses more than her politics). Military aggressiveness in Vietnam was still on everyones mind because be were just barely out of Cambodia. These were issues that were framing political elections in the late seventies/early eighties. And guess what? They are STILL framing elections three decades later. WHY?

Because the same people are still in office.

That is an oversimplification and hyperbole, of course. These issues would still, no doubt, be around in some form. They are complex. And in many ways, becoming more complex as our world view expands. But lets take just one issue. Dependance on foreign oil. Or maybe just dependence on oil in general. Why, nearly forty years after the first oil crisis, do we not have sustainable alternative energy available for mass consumption? You know what? I don't know. I really don't. I could guess that oil companies and car manufacturers have huge lobbies and billions to spend on keeping us dependent. And that might be a pretty good guess. But do I KNOW why? No. What I DO know, is that none of the elected officials who have been holding court in Washington on either side of the aisle has been able to get us off the teat. I do know that. So if I care about gas prices, if that bothers me, if I am "voting my pocketbook" as the media likes to say I do, why do I keep sending the same ineffective drones back to DC year after year?

Because my options are limited. There are no term limits in congress. And elections are so expensive that there are very few people who are even in a position to run for office. And every year, people in the mainstream say the same thing. Voting for a third party is a wasted vote.

Respectfully, people, I must disagree.

I became a Libertarian in 1993. As a young person, I had admired Reagan for many of his policies, and considered myself to be a Republican. I liked the idea of states rights and small government. But as I started out into the world after college, I noticed a disturbing reality. Republicans legislated just as much as their liberal counterparts. They simply legislated about different things. In fact, Reagan himself had championed one of the most anti-federalist movements of my young life by forcing the states to change the legal drinking age from whatever they each individually had determined, to a federally mandated age of twenty-one. He threatened to withhold federal infrastructure funding if the states didn't comply. This was not MY idea of the Republican party. And with each successive election cycle, the legislation got more and more intrusive into private life. Both sides were doing it. Government was growing larger and more unrestrained by the day.  I began investigating options. And I realized, that my viewpoint was aligned much better with the Libertarian philosophy than the modern Republican point of view. So I changed parties. And every year, some jackass has to tell me I am wasting my vote.

Really? And you don't feel like your vote for the "same shit different day" was wasted?

Twenty years later, we are still locked firmly into a two party system, and no doubt it will be this way for years to come. And that is as it should be. I would never advocate any kind of immediate, sweeping change in our government because we need stability. There are many good things that have come out of our current system. But the hallmark of American government is that we have a constitution that is both strong and flexible. The flexibility allows for incremental yet meaningful adaptations that are necessary in order to protect individuals from being overpowered by the force of the group. The reality is that government is a business and has been for generations. The original idea of a loosely constructed federation of colonies is long gone. And in its place, we now have a corporation, selling shares to fund itself, seeking to expand its reach and power in every conceivable direction both domestically and internationally. Thanks to the genius of our founding fathers, we, as individuals retain the ability to reign this behemoth in. We do not have to be TOLD by the media nor by leaders of the two major parties what we SHOULD care about. They want to dictate the agenda, and then give you the illusion of choice. When really, its just the same choice. Over. And over. And over. And over. So nothing really changes.

For my part, I have broken from the two party system. I "waste" my vote every chance I get by aligning myself with ideals that most closely match my own in an attempt to further a big picture agenda. I do this in part because I really believe that the two major parties are so similar, that whichever one furthers its own immediate cause in the near term is not that important to me. What is important to me, is to think about context. Not so much how to answer these specific overwhelming political conundrums, but to figure out why they are conundrums in the first place. I am not advocating that everyone become Libertarian. But I am advocating that everyone stop letting the system, whether its the public or private sector, frame the issues that you, as an individual, care about. And perhaps more importantly I am advocating that if you don't see a remedy within the confines of a two party system, use the freedom you have been given to add momentum to solutions outside the system.

In other words,  as I told my oldest daughter when she was choosing a college, whatever you do, don't let "The Man" keep you down.

BB