The Difference Between Governing And Playing Politics: Abusing Power & Position for Personal & Political Gain

_{Image © Austin Cline
Original Poster: National Archives
Click for full-sized Image}

When we elect people to govern, we should be able to expect that they will actually try to do their jobs and work for the best interests of society. This is also true when the person we don’t vote for wins — maybe we didn’t personally contribute to their victory, but we did participate in the democratic process and this politician does have an obligation to serve all of us, even those who didn’t vote for them.

What happens, though, when we elect people who have no interest and/or ability to govern? What happens when we elect people who are more interested in their own personal power than in the general interests of society? We have been experiencing exactly that with the current Republican Congress and administration.

It may not be possible to document the full extent of Republican malfeasance and mismanagement of this country. Major crises, like hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, were addressed in ways that almost couldn’t have been worse. Minor issues have been dealt with in an even more incompetent manner. It might be easier to simply list the areas where Republican governance has been competent and effective.

(*crickets chirping*)

Well, that went quick. Merely failing to govern well isn’t a sign of malice, however — any idiot can fail. To demonstrate malice, we need to observe their behavior when it’s not just competence we need, but a commitment to doing their job even when they might not particularly feel like it. Unfortunately, we have been handed just such an opportunity: rather than take care of long-overdue spending bills, Republicans in the current Congress would rather go home and leave the work for the next Congress.

Why would they do this? Are they just lazy? No, they appear to be hoping that the Democrats will get any blame for unpopular decisions, making it easier for Republicans to come back to power in two years. I wonder if perhaps they may also just not want to do anything for the ungrateful people who didn’t keep Republicans in power now. So what we have are elected representatives refusing to do the job they are being paid for as part of a tactic to regain power later and deny power to their political opponents now.

Remember how loudly Republicans howled over the story that Clinton staffers removed the W keys from keyboards in the White House in advance of George W. Bush taking up residence? There were in fact allegations of massive vandalism, all of which were false — basically, Republicans lied in order to make Democrats look bad. All that happened was that a few Democrats created a minor inconvenience with a practical joke, something which is apparently common — Bush’s father’s staff did similar things to the incoming Clinton team.

Consider the contrast here: Republicans were outraged and promising investigations over vandalism that didn’t happen and a practical joke that was both minor and reasonably amusing. Now that they are on their way out, however, they are deliberately and consciously undermining the very process of good governance in order to create significant problems for incoming Democrats. That’s not a practical joke or even vandalism, it’s a form of deliberate sabotage.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done about this. When the people in charge are too incompetent or immature to do their jobs, how do you force them to — especially when they are leaving and won’t be in charge anymore anyway? This sort of story doesn’t make for good sound bites, though I doubt that the media would do much to report on it even if it did. And as long as Democrats are still in the minority, they don’t have the power to force Congress to do its job.

When do these people get their final checks? Perhaps the incoming Congress can vote to garnish the wages of outgoing Congressional leaders who failed to pass bills that should have been dealt with. If you don’t do your job, you shouldn’t get paid.