Political pundits and commentators dismiss “process issues” by claiming they are of no interest to Americans. They are wrong, as I will show. Today, in Washington, process is the name of the game, and those who do not understand this fact are operating in ignorance. Political observers who disregard process are missing the real action, and voters who do not make an effort to understand process matters will remain uninformed.
Myriad operational problems are apparent to anyone who follows government in Washington as closely as I have for years. Rather than merely collecting everything I believe to be amiss, however, I have also sought to gather the thinking of others who study government. I have examined the work of countless political scientists, economists, lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, and other specialists and experts, men and women of all political persuasions, who have studied the institutions of our government and analyzed its workings. In addition, I have spoken with a number of old pros who have been observing the workings of the government as long as I, and far more closely the branch or branches of government that are of professional interest to them. Finally, I have examined the work of experienced journalists who know their way around Washington and have attempted to call attention to many problems as well.
As I suggested, it is not happenstance that I am publishing this book before the 2008 presidential election. Regardless of whom the Democrats and Republicans select as their nominees, or if a viable third-party candidate emerges, I do not believe the problems created by a broken government can be overlooked, although it has become the new norm to do just that. Fixing the compromised processes should be a priority.
If this book is hard on Republicans, it is because they have demonstrated during the past several decades a remarkable incapacity to govern at the national level and should accordingly be held responsible for the damage they have done to democracy. In fact, as currently constituted, I do not believe the Republican Party can be trusted with control of the national government, not because of its policies (many of which I confess to favoring) but rather because of its philosophical disposition toward the processes of government, which they so easily abuse in their pursuit and exercise of power. Their thinking has proven ruinous.
It is good form for an author to state his or her biases and disposition, and those who have read Conservatives Without Conscience know that I consider myself a Goldwater conservative on many issues, but I have rejected the authoritarianism of contemporary conservatism. As a California voter, I have not registered as affiliated with any political party and, when voting, pay little attention to party labels. For polling purposes I respond that I am an independent. By nature, I am optimistic. Not of the Pollyanna school, but hopeful that humankind can learn to use its powers of reasoning. To temper my glass-half-full view, however, I try to regularly take doses of reality, and no one dispenses that medicine better than MIT linguistics professor and philosopher Noam Chomsky, who has recently reminded us that the survival of our species is no sure thing.
Biology teaches that we are the only species with the intelligence essential to establishing civilization (which, of course, is evidenced by a high level of cultural and social organization, accompanied by sophisticated systems of government) as Chomsky wrote in Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (2003). He explained that biologists estimate that about fifty billion life-forms have existed on our planet, and an “average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years.” He posed the rather fundamental question of whether our intelligence will distinguish our species, or are we mere “biological errors” that can think and use our allotted 100,000 years to destroy our species as well as much else.
There is not the slightest doubt that our species, if not our planet, will only survive if we use the gift of our intelligence wisely. Modern civilization, of which government is such an integral element, can be maintained only when those governments further the well-being of our species as a whole, and not merely individual nations, states, and tribes. My bias and my interest are tied to a belief that no people yet has conceived of a fundamentally better national system of government than that which our Founders bequeathed Americans (and the world).
While it is not perfect, it is doubtful that perfection exists. There is no certain method to guarantee the survival of our species, but there are many ways to hasten its demise, and high on that list is selfish, self righteous, and self-interested government promoted by the authoritarian conservatives who now control the Grand Old Party, and have given us broken government.
INTRODUCTION
Process Matters
Overwhelming numbers of Americans—three out of every four— believe that their government in Washington is broken. Poll data revealing this fact was published by CNN shortly before the 2006 midterm elections. Quite likely, this information helped the Democrats, since at that time the Republicans controlled all three branches of the federal government. In the coming chapters, I’ll provide support to show that the American people are absolutely correct in their conclusion, although with all due respect to the wisdom of crowds, I am not sure many of them can explain precisely how the system got broken, which parts are not working, and why. The situation is one, rather, that they sense and intuitively understand. Most Americans, in fact, do not pay close attention to government and politics.
My former tribe—the Republican Party—has its fingerprints all over the rubble and wreckage scattered about the federal landscape, not to mention the failed, flawed, and deeply dysfunctional efforts to govern that produced the mess. Republicans do not actually govern but rule the various branches of government when they control them. They soon will have controlled the executive branch for all but twelve of the last forty years. During these four decades Republican presidents have appointed some of their most conservative supporters, increasingly those at the hard right-wing of the party, to the majority of the judgeships of the federal judiciary, working assiduously to tilt the federal judiciary to the right, and bringing it to a dangerous point. When conservative Republicans have controlled part, or all, of Capitol Hill, they have consistently demonstrated that they seek to run the government only for those who share their beliefs, not for all Americans.
All these years of Republican rule have had a profoundly negative impact on the federal system, literally destroying many of the government’s operations. Although voters did deny them control of Congress in 2006, Democrats have not really pressed the case against them that should be made, and based on recent history, they may never do so. (It seems more likely that responsible and disgusted Republicans— or former Republicans who now call themselves independents—will be the ones to start calling their former compatriots to task. But the expatriated Republicans are few in number, although their ranks are growing.)
Despite being the majority party, Democrats have become afflicted with what one Washington reporter (CNN’s Candy Crowley) calls “the wuss factor”—meaning the lack of intestinal fortitude needed to go toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose with Republican miscreants, most of whom are well known for their nastiness and unwillingness to take responsibility for anything. Too many Democrats have avoided matters relating to Republicans’ bending or manipulating government processes until they are broken. It is not that they are not deeply troubled by what they see the GOP doing, but they have dismissed these activities as “process issues.” Conventional wisdom within the Washington Beltway supports their thinking. It is said that no one cares about process issues, so they have become unpopular with the Washington press corps; political consultants, who now run most campaigns; and ultimately candidates.
Such received attitudes about process are, in fact, dead wrong. Hard data shows that people do care about process, and they are particularly interested in processes relating to the fundamental operations of their system of government. It is past time to set the record straight on the topic, because broken government is just such a process issue, and it is a serious problem that it would be foolhardy, irresponsible, and wrong to ignore.
News Media Aversion to Political Process Issues
What exactly is process in the context of government and politics? Safire’s New Political Dictionary defined it as “the majesty of the machinery; the inexorable procedures of government; more broadly, the American way of self-government.”* Safire reported that the term came into vogue in the mid-1970s as a short form of both “the democratic process” and the “decision-making process,” and he provided examples of its use.
“Now that he has had a year’s experience,” Vice President Mondale said of President Jimmy Carter’s first year in office, “he has seen how the process works first hand.” Safire also quoted an aide to then California governor Jerry Brown as saying the governor drove people nuts when he quoted Gandhi on the subject: “The means are the ends in process.”1 Governor Brown, however, makes a good point.
Democracy is a process whose unique, fundamental elements are set forth in our Constitution: representative government, co-equal branches, bicameralism, separations of powers, checks and balances, and the sharing of power among and between the government’s branches as well as state governments. Rules that regulate the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate relate to process.
Myriad operational problems are apparent to anyone who follows government in Washington as closely as I have for years. Rather than merely collecting everything I believe to be amiss, however, I have also sought to gather the thinking of others who study government. I have examined the work of countless political scientists, economists, lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, and other specialists and experts, men and women of all political persuasions, who have studied the institutions of our government and analyzed its workings. In addition, I have spoken with a number of old pros who have been observing the workings of the government as long as I, and far more closely the branch or branches of government that are of professional interest to them. Finally, I have examined the work of experienced journalists who know their way around Washington and have attempted to call attention to many problems as well.
As I suggested, it is not happenstance that I am publishing this book before the 2008 presidential election. Regardless of whom the Democrats and Republicans select as their nominees, or if a viable third-party candidate emerges, I do not believe the problems created by a broken government can be overlooked, although it has become the new norm to do just that. Fixing the compromised processes should be a priority.
If this book is hard on Republicans, it is because they have demonstrated during the past several decades a remarkable incapacity to govern at the national level and should accordingly be held responsible for the damage they have done to democracy. In fact, as currently constituted, I do not believe the Republican Party can be trusted with control of the national government, not because of its policies (many of which I confess to favoring) but rather because of its philosophical disposition toward the processes of government, which they so easily abuse in their pursuit and exercise of power. Their thinking has proven ruinous.
Biology teaches that we are the only species with the intelligence essential to establishing civilization (which, of course, is evidenced by a high level of cultural and social organization, accompanied by sophisticated systems of government) as Chomsky wrote in Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (2003). He explained that biologists estimate that about fifty billion life-forms have existed on our planet, and an “average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years.” He posed the rather fundamental question of whether our intelligence will distinguish our species, or are we mere “biological errors” that can think and use our allotted 100,000 years to destroy our species as well as much else.
There is not the slightest doubt that our species, if not our planet, will only survive if we use the gift of our intelligence wisely. Modern civilization, of which government is such an integral element, can be maintained only when those governments further the well-being of our species as a whole, and not merely individual nations, states, and tribes. My bias and my interest are tied to a belief that no people yet has conceived of a fundamentally better national system of government than that which our Founders bequeathed Americans (and the world).
While it is not perfect, it is doubtful that perfection exists. There is no certain method to guarantee the survival of our species, but there are many ways to hasten its demise, and high on that list is selfish, self righteous, and self-interested government promoted by the authoritarian conservatives who now control the Grand Old Party, and have given us broken government.
INTRODUCTION
Process Matters
Overwhelming numbers of Americans—three out of every four— believe that their government in Washington is broken. Poll data revealing this fact was published by CNN shortly before the 2006 midterm elections. Quite likely, this information helped the Democrats, since at that time the Republicans controlled all three branches of the federal government. In the coming chapters, I’ll provide support to show that the American people are absolutely correct in their conclusion, although with all due respect to the wisdom of crowds, I am not sure many of them can explain precisely how the system got broken, which parts are not working, and why. The situation is one, rather, that they sense and intuitively understand. Most Americans, in fact, do not pay close attention to government and politics.
My former tribe—the Republican Party—has its fingerprints all over the rubble and wreckage scattered about the federal landscape, not to mention the failed, flawed, and deeply dysfunctional efforts to govern that produced the mess. Republicans do not actually govern but rule the various branches of government when they control them. They soon will have controlled the executive branch for all but twelve of the last forty years. During these four decades Republican presidents have appointed some of their most conservative supporters, increasingly those at the hard right-wing of the party, to the majority of the judgeships of the federal judiciary, working assiduously to tilt the federal judiciary to the right, and bringing it to a dangerous point. When conservative Republicans have controlled part, or all, of Capitol Hill, they have consistently demonstrated that they seek to run the government only for those who share their beliefs, not for all Americans.
All these years of Republican rule have had a profoundly negative impact on the federal system, literally destroying many of the government’s operations. Although voters did deny them control of Congress in 2006, Democrats have not really pressed the case against them that should be made, and based on recent history, they may never do so. (It seems more likely that responsible and disgusted Republicans— or former Republicans who now call themselves independents—will be the ones to start calling their former compatriots to task. But the expatriated Republicans are few in number, although their ranks are growing.)
Despite being the majority party, Democrats have become afflicted with what one Washington reporter (CNN’s Candy Crowley) calls “the wuss factor”—meaning the lack of intestinal fortitude needed to go toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose with Republican miscreants, most of whom are well known for their nastiness and unwillingness to take responsibility for anything. Too many Democrats have avoided matters relating to Republicans’ bending or manipulating government processes until they are broken. It is not that they are not deeply troubled by what they see the GOP doing, but they have dismissed these activities as “process issues.” Conventional wisdom within the Washington Beltway supports their thinking. It is said that no one cares about process issues, so they have become unpopular with the Washington press corps; political consultants, who now run most campaigns; and ultimately candidates.
Such received attitudes about process are, in fact, dead wrong. Hard data shows that people do care about process, and they are particularly interested in processes relating to the fundamental operations of their system of government. It is past time to set the record straight on the topic, because broken government is just such a process issue, and it is a serious problem that it would be foolhardy, irresponsible, and wrong to ignore.
News Media Aversion to Political Process Issues
What exactly is process in the context of government and politics? Safire’s New Political Dictionary defined it as “the majesty of the machinery; the inexorable procedures of government; more broadly, the American way of self-government.”* Safire reported that the term came into vogue in the mid-1970s as a short form of both “the democratic process” and the “decision-making process,” and he provided examples of its use.
“Now that he has had a year’s experience,” Vice President Mondale said of President Jimmy Carter’s first year in office, “he has seen how the process works first hand.” Safire also quoted an aide to then California governor Jerry Brown as saying the governor drove people nuts when he quoted Gandhi on the subject: “The means are the ends in process.”1 Governor Brown, however, makes a good point.
Democracy is a process whose unique, fundamental elements are set forth in our Constitution: representative government, co-equal branches, bicameralism, separations of powers, checks and balances, and the sharing of power among and between the government’s branches as well as state governments. Rules that regulate the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate relate to process.
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