FEBRUARY 25, 2020 – Many people are tired of politics and politicians. Without politics/politicians, however, our society couldn’t exist. They (and we!) are part of an essential triangle.
The first side is “law.” Law is necessary for national cohesion. It’s also the sine qua non of personal freedom, private property (right down to your underwear), and order and reliability in personal and economic relationships—all requisite ingredients of a civil, prosperous society. Without “law,” we’d return to the Wild West, where in every instance, “might made right.”
What is “law” (at the federal level)? Statutes; executive orders (authorized either by Article II of the Constitution or by Congress); administrative rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to statutory authority; and “judge-made law”—judicial orders and opinions.
The second side of the triangle comprises institutions that create “law”: Congress, the president, federal judges. Who are the members of Congress, the president, and judges? Politicians! (Even judges are politicians. Each is appointed by the president, and no one gets appointed without having been some kind of politician somewhere in her/his career.)
The third side of the trinity: voters who elect the members of Congress and the president—who, again, appoints the judges.
What do we have when the three sides of the triangle are assembled? Politics!
To denigrate politics and politicians is to denigrate law as a concept and condemn representative democracy as an organizational construct. This lack of understanding of the law/lawmakers/voters political triangle is what convinced many voters to elect a “non-politician.” But there is no such animal: by aspiring to elective office, even the most “non-politician” candidate is, by definition, a politician.
None of this means we shouldn’t oppose particular laws, proposed or enacted, or lawmakers, incumbent or aspirational. And it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t debate our fellow voters. Just the opposite. To maintain a healthy, vibrant society, a healthy, vibrant exchange of information and argument is essential.
I fear, however, that on the whole our nation has lost its moorings. For too long we’ve viewed politics as inherently remote and dirty business, which has made us that much more vulnerable to . . . remote and dirty business. In our education, in our daily struggles, in our on-going pursuit of shiny objects, we’ve ignored the existence of the law-and-politics triangle. In only four out of the presidential elections of the past 100 years has the eligible voter turnout broken 60% (1952, 1969, 1964, and 1968) and then, just barely. In none of the mid-terms elections of the past 100 years has turnout reached 50%. (Of eligible voters who did turn out, how many ever called or wrote their elected officials?)
Our long-standing disengagement from the “remote and dirty” world of politics is what allowed special interests of varying sorts to dominate the law-and-politics triangle. Now we’re in an uproar, and having been AWOL for much too long, we face a developing choice between one demagogue and another.
This is the price of our inattention.
(Remember to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.)
© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
