Congress

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Noblesse Oblige

I love the language in the conclusion of today’s editorial “Holding McDonald’s Accountable” in the New York Times. Assailing McDonald’s dodging responsibility for wage negotiations at the franchise level, the Editorial Board concludes:

Self-interest is something McDonald’s understands. Enlightened self-interest is something else entirely.

You could substitute a number of power brokers for “McDonald’s” in these two sentences, and it would make consummate sense: “the Gun Lobby,” “the coal industry,” “the House Majority,” the American Bar Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and others too numerous to name.  The critical term here is “power,” because these “power brokers” use no criterion but the preservation of their power to shape their policies.  Rarely do such institutions address the notions of “fairness,” “preponderance of evidence,” or “humanity” to address social problems. It is much easier to decide a question based on”Will this give ground to the enemy?”

In fact, the preservation of power has become so commonplace in public discourse that appeals for “fairness” or “humanity” are quietly scorned to silence. Does anyone actually give away power for the benefit of the less powerful? Does anyone believe in the public good or noblesse oblige today? Are these so archaic that they cannot factor in any decision-making at the highest levels of power?

People who work in service professions are often driven by noblesse oblige, “the moral obligation of the highborn to display honorable or charitable conduct” [Random House Dictionary]. Not all of them, of course. But many teachers, nurses, social workers, emergency responders, mediators, public defenders are driven by the needs that surround them in their jobs.  Not surprisingly, most service professionals do not advance to positions of power, because they have been heedless of their own advancement.  And the notion of “highborn” does not apply to most service professionals, because they may have been born to the lower strata of society. But they see themselves as “highborn,” because they have ascended to a place where they can help others.

But in the higher strata where the power brokers live, the notion of “noblesse oblige” has become as archaic as it sounds. No one gives away power, unless there is a considerable return. In fact the conservation of power is almost as inviolable as the conservation of matter. It is always maintained, even if it shifts into different budget categories.Probably the best example is the current Congressional session, which has resolved to inaction, given the lack of political benefits offered by current legislation. If we can’t enhance our power, we won’t legislate, is their motto.

I have always loved the expression “noblesse oblige” because it sounds as charitable as it is.  I have to admit the French have the perfect word for it. And normally I wouldn’t give the linguistically chauvinistic French credit for anything about their language. But really, it’s only fair. They say it beautifully. It would be a shame for such an expression to die from disuse.

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Government by the Menacing

Yesterday the New York Times noted that the vacationing men and women of Congress were holding fewer Town Hall Meetings to get the pulse of the people. Maybe it’s because the people are not well represented at these meetings. Increasingly the meetings are dominated by ruthless and menacing citizens zeroing in on a volatile issue like immigration or health care reform or the current anti-abortion legislation. The discourse on these issues has degenerated to threat and indignation with the intent to intimidate rather than inform.

Admittedly I have not attended such forums, and the media reports mostly on the sensational episodes of the Town Hall. But I am not likely attend as long as the occasion is hijacked by fanatical groups hoping to scare the wits out of their representative with the message that moderation will be summarily punished at the polls in 2014.  And apparently our legislators have reached the same conclusion about Town Hall Meetings.

I don’t blame them.  Our legislators and I would like to believe they vote their conscience or at least the will of their district in the Halls of Congress. If they have been bullied into concessions by our most strident citizens or at least intimidated enough to vote only with their Party, they give up their independence and their conscience.  They become the lackeys of an outraged minority.

Most Congressional representatives will declare they are independent and unswayed by threats, but their lockstep voting with their Party and their 38 symbolic votes against Affordable Care indicate a certain suppleness in the spine.  There are few courageous votes like those few who defied their Party to vote in favor of background checks for gun owners.  In the House of Representatives there is hardly any legislation at all.

Washington is awash in currents of power, so there are multiple causes of the failure to legislate. But the uncivil interests of all stripes, from nativists to abortion rights radicals, can take some credit for the inertia, the sabotage of deliberation in Congress.  Every vote has become fraught with risk.

To those who rule by the volume of their demands or threaten by criminalizing compromise, I would like to say, “Shut up!”  But I won’t, because that would be uncivil.

But I would like to speak for the civil voices, who manage to express their political will by collecting signatures or writing a blog or peacefully protesting or with restrained debate.  We are not intimidated by the volume of your campaign or the fire in your threats.  We are not moved by your stubbornness and unwillingness to listen.  We are not backing down in the face of your apoplexy. We are going to write and speak and vote our consciences as if you were mere static in the air waves.

And the government of the most vocal, by the most ruthless and for the most menacing shall perish from the earth.

 

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A Resolution: To collaborate

I can clearly remember when American citizens of a pinkish cast were referred to as “sympathizers,” “collaborators,” and “fellow travelers,” because of some left-leaning beliefs, such as pacifism, unionization, or integration of the races.  Those were the years that gave “patriotism” and “loyalty” a vindictive connotation. We remember the 1950’s as a cautionary tale about tolerance and respect.

We should be cautioned about the  functioning of Congress in its current incarnation, before the weighty deliberations of 2013 begin, because there are those in positions of power who have made “collaboration” and “compromise” dirty words. Because they are a minority, they treat their coalitions as cult-like societies that vote in lockstep and pledge loyalty to higher causes. They should remember that even the high cause of “democracy” was corruptible in 1954.

But wait, it is not the whole Congress, but the House of Representatives that is trying to force the will of a minority of duly elected representatives on the majority.  And it is not a particular bill, but an ideology that allows no compromise, so pure are its values.  It is a small number of representatives who are dictating to the rest of the country and who are branding their colleagues as “sympathizers,” “collaborators,” or “fellow-travelers.”

Some will counter that I am branding one political persuasion, as the McCarthy hearings attempted to do sixty years ago. But it is not particular political views  that deserve scrutiny, but the intractable opinions of politicians of all persuasions that should be singled out.  Those who deliberately sabotage the legislative process for not yielding to their will come from both ends of the ideological spectrum.

Most of these ideologues are in the House, and we need only observe the voting on the first day of 2013 to identify them.  They will be the ones who vote against the economic package passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and designed to raise revenue and cut costs to avoid plunging into another recession.  There were only eight U.S. Senators who could not support this bi-partisan package, hammered out by intense, but good-faith negotiations on the last day of 2012.  Not because 89 heartily endorsed the bill, but because 89 put the interests of the whole country before their cherished biases.

In the House such “biases” are known as “principles,” and we know you can not be asked to violate your principles. And yet that is what Congress is asked to do every day they try to pass a bill, in a word— to compromise.  The failure to compromise is more deadly than the relinquishing of principles when it comes to passing legislation.  This failure should be addressed by next Congress.

By the grace of God perhaps the House will pass this tortured bill today, but with more discord and defiance than we witnessed in the Senate.  The dysfunction of government clearly lies in the House and the most broken cogs of the process will be identified in the afternoon vote. Many of those representatives have already made up their mind to vote “nay,”and those votes can be written off for the rest of their terms in Congress.

May these ideologues hold true to their principles, but may the majority from both sides of the aisle vote without their ideological blessing. May the ethos of collaboration and sympathy sweep through the House of Representatives converting it back to the deliberative body it was intended to be. May those who whimper at the silencing of their voices understand the price of purism.  May those who care deeply about all of the people of this country be the ones who govern it.

Amen.

 

 

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Who’s Afraid of the Voting Student?

If you are a college student who works and borrows for your education, July 1 is a portentous date. Unless Congress acts, your loan rates will double.

If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, more than 7 million undergraduates taking out federally subsidized loans to cover next year’s tuition will have to dig deeper in their pockets to pay them off. The average cost to students would be $1,000 in increased student loan debt, according to the White House. (CNN News)

Now if we were talking about reducing Social Security benefits or rolling back the middle class tax cuts, there would be frantic scrambling in both branches of the legislature to prevent an election-year disaster. Instead each party is squabbling about how to pay to keep the loan rates stable by cutting their opponent’s favorite program, and the deadline looms closer each day. It’s very likely the axe will fall and student loan rates will skyrocket.

Why? Because most legislators expect college students to remain on the sidelines come election day. They don’t see the college vote as consequential to their election. And yet seven million students affected by this? Isn’t that a likely margin for a Presidential victory in November?

Students, your legislators assume you are:

1) Cynical: You are willing to rationalize your lack of voting by saying your voice doesn’t matter.

2) Lazy: You aren’t going to the trouble to get an absentee ballot this summer, so you can vote from your campus in the fall.

3) Aloof: You don’t feel responsible, because your job is to get an education and let older adults run the country in the meantime.

4)  Ignorant and Complacent: You don’t know how to register to vote and neither do your friends.

Really? Is this what fifteen years of schooling has taught you? That your voice doesn’t matter and voting is not your business? That you are protected from the mismanagement of your elders? Well, these cop-outs are what your representatives are counting on.

We know there is a potent voting block of SEVEN MILLION of you who will be seriously affected by what doesn’t happen by July 1. Mark the date on your calendar.  Then on the next day, make another note: REGISTER FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT. Then when the ballot comes in the mail, VOTE. Or, if you can vote locally on campus or at home, GET OUT TO THE POLLS.

Sorry for the shouting. Sometimes it’s hard to get your attention. You’re not cynical or lazy or aloof or complacent or ignorant, but you’re distracted. So, LISTEN UP!

Imagine this headline on November 7.

Seven Million College Students Shake Up Incumbents!

Sweet revenge! They’ll never take you for granted again. When the bills for college loans and scholarships and internships and job training come up, Congress will rush to the floor and say: We have to get this done! College students vote!

Pay attention, now! This will not be on the test, but it could cost you a lot of money. Voting pays! Make your elected representatives pay as well.