Banning flag burning

Banning flag burning

Meanwhile, as American consular officers all over the world deny tourist visas to tens of thousands of bright, educated young people because they might decide to stay in the United States, any Mexican who can walk can sneak into the United States and stay forever. Each week seems to bring to light a new way that President Bush has found to gather information on American citizens without benefit of any judicial or legal oversight - from phone records to financial records and telephone calls themselves.

Now one would think that given all of the above, the United States Congress would be focused on at least some of those issues. But you would be wrong. They tried to handle immigration policy and had a fruitless debate on Iraq and essentially gave up on both. Instead, with the solid support of Hillary Clinton, they spent last week debating and voting on the advisability of a Constitutional Amendment to ban the burning or desecration of the American flag. The Roman Emperor, Nero, is said to have played the violin as Rome burned. At least, he had some music for his efforts. We have nothing from the current Congress.

I am not sure what bothers me the most: that the U.S. Congress for extremely large periods of time (the eight months or so before elections) is totally incapable of serious behavior, that even during the rest of the time it is such a seriously flawed organization, or that the vast majority of Americans don't seem to care.

The U.S. electoral system has gone seriously off the rails.

First of all, it now takes astronomical sums of money to run a campaign for any Congressional seat, let alone the Presidency. This means that any elected Representative has no choice but to continuously fund raise literally from the very day he/she is elected. This in turn means that the amount of influence peddling and the ability of anyone with large amounts of money to buy votes have gone beyond any bounds of decency. It is all wide-open for everyone to see. The recent lobbying scandals are only the bare tip of the iceberg. The organization "Transparency International" rates countries around the world in terms of corruption and the United States is very high in one particular category: political corruption.

Secondly, there are Congressional elections every two years and for at least eight months before the actual voting; everyone is posturing to ensure that he/she does not offend any interest group. Thus, the sad sight of Hillary Clinton, cynically positioning herself in the center/right sponsoring a bill to prevent the burning of the American flag.  Other Congressman, afraid of offending the growing Hispanic vote, refused to support any immigration bill with teeth in it. Serious debates on Iraq are impossible, as everyone is hoping to give a good "sound bite" to show his/her patriotism and at the same time, looking for ways to discredit other politicians crazy enough to try to publicly face the reality of a catastrophe in the making.

There is an old saying that people get the government they deserve. That is an interesting concept in the Balkans, of course. But it really hits home in the United States. I think it is a combination of two factors.

First of all, the United States has very successfully created a huge private sector and has kept little under direct government control. Moreover, state and local governments have their prerogatives and responsibilities as well.  What this means is that for the vast majority of people in the United States, they can go about their daily lives with little thought about the federal government or Congress.  Government does not overtly intrude on them constantly as it does in this region.

Secondly, however, there is little interest in the outside world. Less than a quarter of the population even has a passport. Geography quizzes in high school, college, and among the general population traditionally show an abysmal knowledge of the world. Traditionally, what this has meant is that the real number of decision-makers and opinion-makers on foreign policy issues is very small.  In Congress, for example, there are probably less than 10% of all Senators and Representatives who have any specific knowledge of the Balkans at all. The others are guided almost totally by the few who know and care. 

I can't help but feel that we can get away with this sort of behavior for a certain period of time, given our economic strength and because of it, our military superiority. But it has to catch up with us sooner or later. I do believe that this is how the American century will run its course, destroyed more from within than without.

I am not at all sure that the system can be saved, as it has gone so far off track. John McCain has led the way in campaign finance reform, but it has been an uphill battle and has had little impact on the system. The amount of money estimated as required to even enter the next Presidential race and hope to win one's party nomination is over $100 million. In the end, the answer comes down to two things.

First of all, a strong President with vision that has the ability and will to lead the American people in specific directions. But secondly, some event or crisis which focuses the attention of the average American in an extraordinary manner.

As an example, Lyndon Johnson became President only because of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But it is a fact that under Johnson's leadership and because of the trauma of the Kennedy assassination, he was able to pass far more civil rights legislation than Kennedy ever was able to do. President Franklin Roosevelt, faced with the Great Depression, was able to enact significant legislation, which impacts the United States positively even today. President Bush had his chance following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Unfortunately, he threw it away in the sands of Iraq.

The problems mentioned in the first paragraph above are not static and will not wait for the United States to get its act together. In fact without U.S. leadership, virtually every one of them will get much worse. At the same time, most of them require a significant amount of international cooperation to resolve and that is notably lacking at present. For example, it no longer matters how or why the current situation in Iraq developed. The reality is that we are where we are, as people say in the Balkans. It would be bad for the entire world for Iraq to descend into total chaos. But nevertheless, more and more countries are pulling their forces out of harms way.

I have written the above based on the U.S. system, with which I am most familiar. But it is true to a greater or lesser extent in almost all of the democracies of the European Union as well.  We all seem genuinely unable to deal with the significant, international, global problems, which are now popping up seemingly every day. Welcome to the new multi-polar world!