Government grows like kudzu. This is not because anyone really intends it to grow, it is just that when a proposal is offered, moving forward requires rejecting it outright or accepting some smaller piece of it. That smaller piece gets institutionalized and creates vested interests. Seldom are proposals made to roll back an “advance.” Legislation builds and expands on prior legislation till eventually the vine of government chokes the capacity of citizens to support it. We can feel the kudzu wrapping around our throats.
For much of my life I thought Democrats were the better option because they understood the requirement in the Constitution that every citizen be entitled the full exercise of their civil rights. Democrats also wanted to allow working people to band together into unions just as owners of capital banded together into corporations; it was a matter of balance and justice. And finally, Democrats wanted to make sure that there was a safety net for anyone who just didn’t have the resources or wherewithal to carry their weight due to age or ill health or unlucky genes.
Well, we have elected a Black person as our President so we have a marker, albeit an imperfect one, of the achievement of full rights to all among us. Though it is badly designed and needs revamping, we do have a financial safety net through Social Security. And with health care reform; as confusing and untested and badly formed as it is, we now have a final piece of a safety net in place. This means to me that the necessary and sufficient requirements for a decent country have been met. We can and should fix the stupidities that were introduced into these programs, but at least they are ethical and just. Democrats have served their purpose. The price of getting to point where the Declaration of Independence’s entitlement to “life” has been high and the path circuitous, but it has been done!
To continue to be a Democrat would mean that I would need to advocate the growth of government programs and activities beyond what is necessary and sufficient. Doing so threatens our sustainability. What we need to do now is refine and contain government. This might lead one to think the Republican party would be the alternative, but it is not. The only sustainable part of the Republican agenda is containment of taxes. The rest of the Republican agenda is driven by an odd coalition of business interests that by nature manipulate and overwhelm regulation and interpretation of the law in their own interests, and social conservatives who want to advance their well-meaning (and perhaps even valid) beliefs by inserting precedence for their beliefs in the public arena that would limit expression of beliefs and rights of others.
There are remaining problems that the Constitution, as wonderful as it is, did not address and that neither Democrats nor Republicans have any interest in solving. One is the systematic gerrymandering of voting districts. This entrenches both parties, disadvantages alternative voices, and induces gridlock by engendering extremism and polarization. Only a third party can stop this and begin to reverse it. Reversing gerrymandering is a plank of my platform. A second problem not addressed in the constitution is the inevitable institutionalizing creep of governmental programs and services because it is in the short term interests of both parties to hold whatever territory they gain. I believe a sustainable model of government is a “just in time time-limited necessary and sufficient government” that implements necessary or urgent programs and projects and then gets out of the way. Government can be good. Even taxes can be good if spent on the right things at the right time in just the right amount to solve a problem – like issuing passports. An example at a State level is the construction and maintenance of a grid of highways. A second plank of my platform is to make sure that highway funds are distributed rationally and fairly in proportion to tax collections. A third plank is to move to assignment of school vouchers that reflect the per student proportion of State and Federal tax funds to parents so they can choose to support institutions that are congruent with their values and expectations and meet specified measurable performance standards.
The third issue that has crept into the body politic is the treatment of corporations and other groups as if they were citizens. Less than twenty years after Lincoln celebrated our government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” corporations claimed to be people on the basis of a misreading of the intent and language of the fourteenth amendment. We treat corporations. political parties, unions and other groups as if they were fully enfranchised. This has led to a lobbying industry vested in conflict and advocacy of special interests at the expense of the voices of citizens. If I have a radical position, it is that I believe inalienable rights to belong only to individual citizens. I hope repair generations of undermining the direct relationship of citizens to our government. I hope my grandchildren will live in a comfortable trusting relationship with their government with only a vague memory of the pandering polarizing power mongering drivel of market segmented media. Maybe the internet will open a window to free rational cooperative discourse among us as Americans.
Even the Libertarians I have chosen to affiliate with can sometimes sound wacko. We too often adopt polarizing absolutist positions because we are operating in a climate of absolutes. I can understand why find ourselves doing this, but do not support it, and will not become another screeching voice. It is also in the interest of the Republicans and Democrats to paint Libertarians as fringe folks. Witness the smirking disrespect of Ron Paul that McCain exhibited during the presidential debates. The Libertarians I stand with are small government conservatives with a strong concern for civil liberties. I will have to negotiate my point of view with rigorous social conservatives as well as people with anarchistic frames of reference in the big tent of the Libertarian Party; but I think that is a better use of energy than to be locked into an expansionist point of view about government as a Democrat or to see-saw between self righteous social views and socially oblivious business interests as a Republican. This Libertarian suit is not a comfortable suit to wear; but it fits me better than any other.
If I am making sense to you, please join me in my effort to put the Constitution first and to make our little District 48 in South Carolina a model of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.