Pitfalls of Popular Government

By: Lorenzo Dee Belveal

Differences of public opinion in a nation existing under "popular government" is the mother's milk of concensus: We disagree. We debate. We reconcile. We move on. This represents the ideal. In the extremity, we have recourse to constitutionally authorized "initiative, referendum and recall". Again, this reflects the operative democratic ideal.

In actuality, it doesn't work that way, especially in the current political milieu. The presently functional scenario is "we disagree, we buy hate billboards, we run destructive television ads, we organize street protests, we break windows, we torch cars and buses - we riot". We even kill people who disagree with us!

Popular government has abandoned its reason and lost its good manners,
somewhere back in the vicinity of the Viet Nam debacle. And, having opted for street demonstrations and destruction of public property, in lieu of mere disagreement, debate, adjustment of viewpoints and national reconciliation, we escalate our politico-philosphical schisms into local mini-wars involving live ammunition, high explosives, arson and bloody violence. 

In the course of making this descent into behavioral hooliganism, this observer fears we have lost - or are in the process of losing - our capacity for constructive participation in the business of 'government by the governed'.

The outrages in Los Angeles, Seattle and on the Washington Mall bear a closer resemblance to Tiananmen Square and East Timor than to any form of "reasonable agreements, reasonably arrived at".  In short, we are becoming a nation of thugs and street fighters. 

Our weapons of choice are the sly political lie, character assasination, the skillfully crafted canard and the meticulously fabricated political cover-up -  intended to delude the masses and protect the guilty. These verbal tools are regularly augmented by Molotov Cocktails, dynamite and lots of Smith & Wesson products.

Our practicing politicians have become much too adept at deceit and public
posturing to be much concerned about honor and behavioral rectitude. As a
result, the once honored "public servant" has become the official abuser of the
ill-used constituency he is sworn to serve. In well-deserved reciprocity, the
electors have come to identify their elected surrogates to the government
function as an assortment of consummate thieves, poseurs, and venal blackguards, neither to be respected nor trusted - and not with either the public welfare or the family silverware.

Out of such a brew of distrust and mutual antipathy, how can anyone expect
the best interests of the nation and its citizens to be served? We are a polygot
assortment of special interests, competing priorities, diametrically opposed
convictions and self-serving motivations. The only time we tend to come together is for the quadrennial election exercise. And even this national communion is sullied by high crimes and procedural outrages that challenge
the credulity of all except the most callous and unrepentant "ward-heelers".

We have a phrase to cover all of this. We resignedly dismiss it with the shameful admission that "It's just politics!"

It certainly is! But this dismissal fails to trivialize either the cause or the effect.

Within those shameful "political" maneuverings are contained the seeds of
destruction of the nation those same political procedures were/are intended
to protect, preserve and nurture for future generations of Americans.

-- And all of this to our national shame and increasing disservice.

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Copyright © Lorenzo Dee Belveal                                                                May 28, 2002                                                                                                 All rights reserved