Lessons in Effective Governance

 Lessons in Effective Governance

 

   What are the lessons learned in the recent House of Representatives shutdown, caused by the lack of an elected Majority Leader?  The lessons are many and this post deals with some of them in what I see, as their order of importance.

   First and foremost is “The Rule of The Rubber Stamp.”  This rule simply stated is: In a partisan organization, the majority party, when faced with a nearly equal distribution of the two party’s membership, must vote in a unanimous or nearly unanimous manner in order to reliably exert their power.  The event we recently witnessed was five or so MAGA (Morons Against Government Association) members ruling the entire body of a Republican majority House.  Less than ten MAGA faithful were able to force a unanimous vote of the Republican House members for one of their cult.  The Kamikaze few were willing to blow up the entire organization that they were elected to, in order to have their guy in control.  The Rubber Stamp is an effective method to apply power with, but a poor method of governing.

   How was this possible?  Well, in order to elect a Majority Leader of The House of Representatives a majority of the entire House must vote for a candidate.  This sounds logical but it most certainly isn’t.  It firmly places The Rule of the Rubber Stamp in power.  With all but a few of the majority party members voting for a leader and the opposing party voting unanimously, as a Rubber Stamp, for a minority candidate, no one will receive a majority.  The few dissenting Republicans will not vote for the Democratic candidate.   In the partisan world we exist in, only Republicans should vote for the Republican leader and only Democrats should vote for the Democratic leader.  Two separate elections.  This would return the power to the majority of each political party.  Is that not how a leader should be chosen?  The majority party would choose the majority leader and the minority party would choose the minority leader.  Kevin McCarthy, with some ideological opponents, would have been chosen on the Republican first ballot and Hakeem Jeffries would also have quickly prevailed, but also with some ideological opponents.  

   When did reason desert our government?  Long ago, when the two parties took over the power from your elected representatives, as opposed to those elected ruling their party.  The party is the major force in the supply of giant campaign funds.  They also control committee assignments.  In other words, the party determines who gets elected to office and what power they will have once there.  This is why a man of wisdom and morality, Mitt Romney, speaks his mind, but most often votes with his party.  While the party controls those who govern, large dollar interests control both parties.  So the chain of command is Large Dollar Interests, States’ Rights (The Senate) and last but certainly least The People.  The President does not determine the laws that govern us and our Supreme Court, who determines the meaning of the law, is not elected but is given members with lifetime appointments.   I’m not sure that this power structure is sustainable. 

Cheers, Old Buz                   10/26/2023

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