The Poverty Of Politics

In ages past politics was an art built on the great principles of political wisdom, as in the laws of Moses and the precepts of the Founding Fathers. A politician was a person knowledgeable and skilled in the application of these principles to the processes of government and the political institutions. In recent years, under the influence of alien thought, politics has become a science of self-interest and political logrolling, that is, trading of political influence or votes to achieve passage of laws favoring one another. To be an engineer you must study engineering; to be a doctor you must study medicine; but to be a politician you merely need to know your own interests and those of your voters and backers.

Two kinds of people generally do well in politics: men and women who willingly comply with the wishes of the most powerful interest group, and those who blindly obey their superiors in the hierarchy of political power. Compliance and obedience assure re-election and all the fringe benefits thereof. Ninety-eight percent of all incumbents in the U.S. Congress are usually re-elected. The same is true to a large extent on the state level. In many states not one incumbent seeking re-election to a house or senate is defeated.

Our government is a government by political parties guided by public opinion and organized and manipulated by powerful interest groups. Special interests, grasping, self-serving, narrow private interests, are the moving force for much of government activity today. Alexis de Tocqueville, the eminent French observer of American democracy during the 1830s, foresaw this degeneration more than 150 years ago when he sounded the warning against special interest groups voting themselves every conceivable favor and largesse.

The halls of the U.S. Congress are crowded by some 20,000 registered lobbyists, the agents of 3,700 associations and 3,300 political action committees, nearly all of which are dedicated to enriching their particular sponsors at the expense of the American public. They are loitering about the marble halls of government seeking to buy access and broker deals for their clients. Clearly, they are not advancing the cause of individual enterprise and free markets. Even the agents of corporate America have no love of free enterprise; they represent corporate managers eager to enhance their own careers and feather their own nests at the expense of taxpayers and stockholders.

The members of Congress who are besieged by the legions of special interests seek to arrive at some symposium of priorities. Their vote generally depends on the support it obtains. Majority rule is a principle of power which obeys the interests of the majority and elevates them over all other principles and precepts.

An outstanding common feature of our political structure is the outer-directed member of Congress who is oblivious to any single ideology. He may be the spokesman and representative of the most powerful special interest group in his Congressional district such as cotton growers, peanut farmers, tuna fishermen, or labor unions, or, he simply may represent the special interests of his district, making every effort to bring Federal funds to his district. He may author legislation and urge the president to restrict machine tool imports and grant tax favors to businesses which buy machinery and equipment made in his district, or, he may make “jobs, jobs, and more jobs” his priority by spending more of other people’s money.

In the political climate of the special-interest society this politician is likely to be successful. He offers instant relief from all suffering, real and imagined, posturing as a saint and benefactor with ready solutions in his pocket for making all things right. Although he has difficulties managing his own personal affairs and balancing his own bank account, he wages war on poverty, war on disease, war on crime, war on drugs, etc., etc. Occupying the high ground of concern for his fellowmen, his fountainhead of strength is human frailty and failure; the banner under which he parades through his district is compassion.

The “compassionate politician” who freely votes himself salary raises and expensive perks from the public treasury is likely to be rather evasive when asked about the source of the funds he is ever eager to spend. When pressed for an answer, he may flail at unnecessary waste and inefficiency as if his spending proposals could be financed out of some economy measures. In time, he is likely toalso labor diligently to forge and politicize his special interest groups in order to appropriate the necessary funds by majority vote and legislative force. He may denounce large corporations for not paying their “fair share” of taxes and castigate his affluent neighbors for evading their public obligations. He may launch special interest wars, fanning flames of discontent, envy, covetousness, hatred, and anger. At this point, he descends from the high point of human concern and stoops to a level of crass egotism. He becomes a Jekyll and Hyde, with alternating phases of concern and cruelty.

To confront these politicians is to challenge them on moral grounds. They are immune to economic reasoning which they reject and ridicule as the apologetics of stone-hearted Scrooges. But they are vulnerable to moral challenges. Their posturing as saints and benefactors can be exposed as a crude deceit. Their fountainhead of strength—compassion—can be unmasked as simple dressing and re-election farce. Their “generosity” obviously is nothing but bluster about their ability to gain access to the public treasury and engage in legal plunder.

There is little probability that the trend will change as long as we remain infatuated with the gods of politics. We must turn our backs on all demagogues, no matter what color or party. Above all, we must stand back from the privilege and entitlement troughs where the special interest groups like to congregate. We must openly tender our resignation from the pressure groups whose agents are laboring to keep the troughs replete and plentiful.

There is great power in example; we lead others when we walk upright.

Hans F. Sennholz