POLITICS AND NATURE

Who Cares!

Pejorative comments, boring lectures, long winded commentaries made by pedantic creatures amused with arcane regulations and serial, systemic abuses, makes pondering why people don’t give a hoot about government look downright weird, a seemingly futile endeavor filled with questions that can’t be answered and motives which don’t really matter at all.

These thoughts ran through my brain as Carl Levin, Democratic Senator from Michigan, sat, surrounded by empty, expensive, executive chairs meant for the senators of the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee, grilling three or four important personages from the credit card industry over why and how they shaft the American public. Boring.

What does it matter what goes on in those hearing rooms. Old men like Levin quoting from the esoteric legalese Capital One and Bank of American lawyers fill their promotional offers with so the opportunity for perpetrating legalized fraud upon individual citizens presents itself at the slightest provocation. This is the vocation of government. In a republic such as our own, we hire people, through voting, to do this for us. It takes a special breed to wade through the muck and mire that is public policy.

Perhaps this is why Americans vote for personalities who shave off the excess, simplify the details for the ease of digestion on the broader scale. Nobody reads those credit card disclaimers word for word. It’s like buying a car. In two years dealing with automobile sales, only a handful of customers ever read the standard contract. Of course, working for a reputable dealership may have advantages in this way, but I assume that those places perpetuating the bad name of car sales get customers who will not spend the time contemplating what they are signing. Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware, for the seller has no scruples and morality is for sissies.

We Should Care:

Carl Levin has been in the Senate since 1978, nearly 30 years. I am not of the opinion sponsored by some that term limits are always a useful or justified thing. People stay in the Senate a long time. Too long, according to advocates of a more citizen based representation. I wouldn’t be completely against term limits in the House of Representatives, although I still think elections offer the best alternative to someone’s staying in power too long. But the Senate is a different animal.

It is comforting to know if a representative of the people is going to go head to head with powerful interests personified by individuals who have been at their jobs for twenty or thirty years, he or she has some knowledge and experience. It is different than the executive, for which term limits are critical, unless you want a Hugo Chavez throwing oil money around and digging the hole deeper for the poor by siding with them on every occasion, only to stab them with his ignorance over the long haul. But I digress.

The Senate is meant to be a more noble institution. It is not always such, but looking at those men and women serving in the United States Senate can engender a certain respect. The Federalist Papers explain that the Senate is a method of checking the ambitions of the most powerful men in a state. Set them up with other powerful figures, make them argue, and then set them out to pasture once they are too tired to make trouble.

In corporate America, powerful men go for the cash. There are those who say the morals of this nation have been compromised by the lack of a stable family structure or the denial of true American values or the reliance upon the state instead of individual responsibility. There may be some truth to this, but looking into the eyes of the corporate thugs sent to do their master’s bidding, it is not hard to fathom the depth of depravity existing within the confines of the executive boardroom in America and to see the effect their excesses have on the broader social order.

Profit and Debt:

Profit is a healthy and positive attribute and we all want to profit when we can from the use of our labor or our minds. Yet profit at all costs leaves a nation barren and soulless. People are generally good. A lifetime of travel proves this to me. However, there are times when we all take a step back from responsible actions due to job requirements. Most of us have taken the easy way once or twice.

For a corporate raider preying on individuals, there is little to be done but to fire up the vat of oil for the human sacrifice needed to prolong the God of wealth and desire. It is “risk based” they say thus they must raise rates from 8% to 28% on a working woman who pays her bills on time, but only the minimum due, leaving her a never ending saga of debt leading to hopelessness and depraved living.

Is it her fault she charged too much? Sure. However, what right is it that the interest rate goes through the roof, well beyond the confines of usury? As stated in columns before, credit is a wonderful thing and this nation is stronger for its availability. It allows people to start businesses, support businesses, get through difficult periods, or attempt to work out of their homes by writing utter nonsense for hours every day.

Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, among others, traveled to Europe during and after the Revolution to borrow as much money as they could get their hands on from anyone willing to give a helping hand. There was not much but enough to get the founders out of some serious fiscal difficulties.

Ronald Reagan certainly wasn’t afraid of debt. Nor was the Democratic congress that helped him do whatever it was that he did for which he is held in such high esteem.

Credit card companies make a lot of money. And people should be responsible for the debts they assume. But anyone who’s ever made $9.00 per hour knows the difficulty of digging out of even a small amount of debt, let alone debt at 28%. At that rate, paying the minimum, the debt will be there forever. After a period of time, the principal has been paid many times over.

Personal Responsibility Versus Corporate Accountability:

Back to the question leading me through the former maze of tangents…Who cares about government? The more informed a society is the more open and free and profitable it will become. We have given up too much in the name of corporate profiteering and greed. And we have confused greed with profit.

Carl Levin may be dull and old, but he has been working on issues affecting regular folks for longer than thirty years. I believe that is honorable.

I often laugh to myself as I sit here writing various oddities about my distinctive view of the world and its politics. I have my doubts about whether anyone else thinks their funny.

In the end, though, through paternalistic notions of government from the left and leave us alone ideals of the right, there is a balance that I find fascinating. From the Keating five to Enron, to Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay, people throughout the federal government have been caught with their hands in the till, stirring up their own pots at the expense of the broader public welfare. Corruption will continue as long as people deal with each other. It’s just a part of the game. Unfortunately, a lot of normal people get caught up in the high stakes gambles taken by so-called professionals and if the feds can bring some of that to light, good for them.

United States democracy is unique. Unfiltered it is cluttered, sloppy and inefficient. Things don’t get done and this is frustrating. Poor Hugo Chavez learned this facet of democratic leadership and he is determined to make things turn out his way. Vlad Putin appears to scheme for the long term possession of the iron fist of power with which he can squash foes. Our own current leader laments frequently about how hard his job is and has even mentioned how much easier it would be if he were a dictator. I often wondered why he wanted the job in the first place. But, there it is, power does crazy things to people.

Most Americans want government to leave us alone. Get on with the business at hand and get over politics. But then, when you dig a little deeper, they like the big brother’s services. They enjoy the police powers, they relish over their own abilities to capture government contracts, they rejoice at federal subsidies, and they even take the benefits of illegal immigration such as cheaper vegetables and clean rooms.

Here Come the Feds:

Looking into the phone book is a useful study. The federal government alone is over three pages in my little Flagstaff phone book. Let’s get rid of government, you say? Who needs it? Who cares?

Alrighty then! What shall we get rid of?

The Federal Information Center,

The Agriculture Dept: Including the Forest Service, Cooperative Extension and Rural Development,

How about the Air Force,

ATF, this one sounds good to put on the chopping block,

Members of Congress; This would be popular but not practical.

The Courts

The Safety of Dams program: pretty critical in a state that uses some pretty big dams.

EEOC

DEA

FBI

Federal Depository Library: Cline Library at NAU, a research institution

BLM

Fish & Wildlife

FDA

Within the Forest Service here there are 3 national forests and numerous districts

INS: Not likely the way this election is going

BIA and the Interior Department in general

IRS: Good old Huck says he’ll get rid of this.

Various Departments of: Justice, Labor, Law Enforcement (secret service, US Marshalls) Navy, Park Service (w/in DOI), Post Office,

Wildlife refuges,

Small Business Administration

Social Security

Dept of Transportation

Dept. of Treasury,

Veteran’s Affairs,

Water Resources, and

National weather service

So, there we have it. As a liberal believing in the ultimate freedom of the individual, and someone with a fair amount of conservative ideas, I would like to know where to start. This is the problem at the heart of it. It’s easy to say get rid of government, it is too intrusive and can’t do anything right. But then you have to delve into the details. And sooner rather than later, you are pissing someone off and they’re likely a neighbor or a friend.

This is also why government matters. I personally avoid government whenever possible. I don’t trust authority. But I get information and I have use for a good number of the agencies listed above. It is perplexing and daunting. Jeff Flake (R, AZ) hasn’t been able to make heads or tales of it and he’s as honest about stopping the feds as they come.