The Founding Fathers and The Debt Ceiling Saga

This week has been dominated by the debt ceiling. This is another sign of the moribund nature of American politics. Elections, and I thought we recently had one, are meant to have consequences. Unfortunately America is not a democracy, which means that a minority of its politicians can dominate the discussion regardless of whether they have majority support in the electorate.

This oddball system was rigged way back when because the Founding Fathers, a phrase we all must say only in deferential and hushed tones, were obsessed with avoiding the ugly rule of the mob. They, like most aristocrats and quasi-aristocrats, were deeply suspicious of the ability of the average Joe’s understanding of matters of state. Then there was the small issue of the potential clash of interests between the landowning class – of which the Founding Fathers were mainly representative – and the great unwashed who had no property worth a lick. Property owners have long thought that wisdom is best acquired from the duties associated with that ownership, and that the duties of government largely revolve around preserving the values and prestige of the land being owned by the wise.

Thus the American system of government is designed with a series of bulwarks to prevent majority rule. Or at least to make it very difficult to get anything done. This allegedly classless society was thus launched with one class clearly privileged above all else, and its interests well protected to boot.

So here we are in the aftermath of a resounding win for the Democrats in the Presidential and Senate elections,mired in a total gridlock in terms of policy making because the Republicans were able to rig enough elections to the House of Representatives to preserve their rule in that House. Yes they did rig the election. In the American system House seats are allocated to each state based upon recent census counts in order to preserve the appearance of a democratic apportionment of representation. It is never exact, but it’s close enough. Where the game gets rigged is at the state level. Once the state knows how many seats it has it writes the rules of election and draws up the district boundaries. The process of setting those district boundaries is an open invitation to cheating. And back in 2010, right after the Tea Party’s climb to national pre-eminence, a number of more conservative states stretched the rules to the maximum to ensure that even a minority vote would return a preponderance of Republicans to the House.

Of course the Democrats cheat too. The issue this time is that the ability to rig things went disproportionately to the red states. That and the cheating was more rampant and blatant than usual.

So, despite getting a clear cumulative majority of the votes in House races, the Democrats still ended up in the minority.

What’s this got to do with this week’s top stories?

That House Republican caucus with its majority of seats but minority of votes, persists in trying to impose its will on the nation. With its policies rejected it carries on regardless.

This profoundly undemocratic activity is the source of our malaise and risks condemning us to perpetual stagnation.

It is one thing to advocate eliminating the safety net in the run up to an election, win that election, and then carry through with the elimination. It is another to lose the election and still try to achieve your rejected goal.

Without electoral support or validation the Republicans have had to resort to hostage taking and blackmail.

First they said that they wanted the government to default on its debt and to close down. This week began with a steady stream of Republican leaders opining out loud that a government shut down might be ‘necessary’ in order to force the Democrat lead Senate and the President to cave in and slash social spending.

When that ran afoul of public sentiment and, more importantly for the GOP, stock market reaction they walked back the idea and went to plan ‘B’.

This new plan is that they will graciously accede to raising the debt ceiling for three months with the proviso that in that time a budget is passed that slashes social spending.

Forgive me if I fail to notice the difference.

What they appear to have done is to exchange a hostage plan that has immediate dire consequences, for a new plan that postpones those dire consequences for a quarter. Nothing else changes. The economy is still held hostage. The electorate is still ignored. The end result is still the same.

The House Republicans remain determined to slash social spending no matter what, and especially no matter what the voters say. Apparently the Senate and the President are supposed to do the bidding of the House and propose Republican legislation, adopt Republican aims, and also ignore the electorate. All because the Republicans lost the election.

Not only is this bizarre, it is shockingly irresponsible, arrogant, and flies diametrically in the face of the voters recently expressed will.

So the American system’s odd bias towards minority rule and its outright encouragement of hostage taking tactics has led us to an impasse that threatens our prosperity.

Next time you take a moment to revere the Founding Fathers add a few curse words for the gridlock they bequeathed us.