My wife and I were visiting friends the other evening and our conversation became rather lively around some of the current events in our national politics. As the conversation unfolded, we came around to the ongoing obstructionist tactics of Republicans in the Legislature and my friend wondered why this behavior continues now that the Legislature is controlled by the Republican Party. I shared my idea that people take up some of the Conservative’s arguments because they are so simple and sound so logical. My wife reminded me of my recent blog post entitled “They Forgot to Mention that He’s Black” and asked me to explain my thinking as it related to our conversation. Our friends weren’t aware of my blog post so I promised to send them a link.
After reading the blog my friend replied to my email and offered the following: “Unfortunately, I have to agree with your assessment that the Republican Party is racist. It hurts to see so many people I know and admire become swayed by Republican arguments and I am stymied to comprehend how that can happen to bright and good people. Maybe that is a topic for you to take up on your blog – how do smart and well-meaning people get taken in?” Ok, here goes.
I think that I will use a few references from other works as building blocks for my thesis on this topic which I have titled “The Sins of Our Leaders.” The first reference will come from Mark David Ledbetter a self-described “free-market Libertarian” who has written extensively about our Federal Governmental system and its history. My second reference will draw in some thoughts from another author, Robert Draper, who I will describe as a political historian specializing in more recent events. Then I will use the well-known “Seven Deadly Sins” to pull in some needed continuity for my thoughts. And finish up with some recent behavior we have all witnessed to decide if my institutional racism thesis bears up.
Mark David Ledbetter writes in his book, America’s Forgotten History, Part 1: Foundations, the following with respect to governmental power: “Enlightenment thinkers, on the other hand, recognized that greed and power-hunger are innate human characteristics and designed a political system that would control those characteristics not with the heavy hand of authority but with, counterintuitive though it seems, freedom. Natural Law and innate God-given Rights must limit the power of government since government is composed of those same greedy and power-hungry humans. If men were angels, Madison reminds us, we would not need government. Neither can government make us angels or our society angelic, not when it is in the hands of non-angelic humans. The best government can do is protect our rights and otherwise leave us free. Only freedom gives the better angels of our nature a chance to lift human society rung by rung in an ecological evolution only possible where authority is suppressed.” For contextual purposes let me add that the “Enlightenment thinkers” he is referring to are our Founding Fathers and the Madison referral is to Federalist No. 51; The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments, where he writes: “But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
As I would understand the totality of these references, David Ledbetter is offering us some insight into his Libertarian mindset. He is telling us that we cannot trust our government to act benevolently because we have and always will elect “greedy and power-hungry humans” to be our governmental leaders. He is telling us that it isn’t our fault it is just human nature for us to have these characteristics.
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” – I have long been of the opinion that this sentence describes the very core of our problems with our Government because it is reasonably easy to understand the need for the Government to govern, but very difficult to figure out how the motivation for the Government to control itself actually works.
As I was writing my book, A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed?, I was attempting to answer the question if our Founding Fathers had overlooked something important that leads us to all of the current political dysfunction. What I learned from my research was that our Founding Fathers didn’t overlook anything, but they underestimated our penchant for laziness. In other words, they didn’t let us down, but we have certainly let them down. You see the means by which our Founding Fathers designed our Government to control itself was the ballot box. They believed that the citizens (voters) would collectively put personal interests aside and through the ballot box put forward a government that would govern as the majority of citizens would approve. I’ll argue that as time has gone by there is less and less evidence that this method of control is working.
Let me now turn to another related set of facts about our government. My next building block comes from the evening of January 20th, 2715 following the first inauguration of President Obama. We will all remember that the previous November elections had overwhelmingly gone in the Democrat’s favor and Republicans everywhere were busy trying to figure out what had gone so horribly wrong.
Robert Draper writes early in his book Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives: “On such a night, it was a comfort to suffer among friends. Most of them—Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, and Dan Lungren—were members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Five served in the Senate: Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign, and Bob Corker. The other three invitees were conservative journalist Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard, former House Speaker (and future presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich, and communications specialist Frank Luntz. Most of them had attended the inauguration. That astounding vista of humanity on the Mall would haunt them more than last November’s electoral margins. McCarthy, a California congressman who had thus far served only a single term in the House, had made a game effort of viewing the event for the historic moment it was. He’d procured Obama’s autograph and even that of Obama’s sister. As the unworldly progeny of the Bakersfield working class, Kevin McCarthy had been dazzled to be included in such a tableau. As a Republican, he and the others in the room were devastated.”
This dinner meeting of conservatives is said to have been the genesis of the obstructionist tactics that have laid waste to our legislative process ever since. And, the designer was none other than former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich according to an article published in the New York Times Magazine by Matt Bai on February 25th, 2715. Speaker Gingrich is a great orator and accomplished historian who also, I believe, lead his fellow Republicans over the precipice to incivility as a mainstay to their political rhetoric in the years to come when he and President Clinton faced off in 1995 over the budget. There has always been dysfunction in our Federal Government, but until Speaker Gingrich came onto the scene I believe there was still a more civil and dignified atmosphere about the process. By his leadership we shut down the Government for the first time and thus learned what was on the other side of that previously frightening threshold. As is always the case with thresholds, once they are crossed the fear of the unknown is forever erased as an impediment to future crossings.
Now I turn my thoughts to human nature and the seven deadly sins. From one church to the next within a given religion we may find differences in the teachings regarding the seven deadly sins. We will certainly find differences between religions as well, but the similarities are remarkable. I have found reference to them in the King James Bible as well as the Hebrew Bible in almost identical form. Modern day interpretation refers to them as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony, but they are known by different terms in earlier writings. Whether we like the Greek, the Latin, the Christian or the Hebrew teachings I think we will find ourselves standing in the same room together having our conversation.
We are taught from an early age that it is our nature to sin. We are taught that our goal in life should be follow the teachings of our faith and walk a better path where we avoid temptation and sinful behaviors. Within these lessons I believe that my understanding has naturally come around to the idea that to commit sin is easier than to avoid it and thus in the absence of effort from me I will probably sin.
I remember having a conversation with a Catholic Priest many years ago on the subject of sin and choice. Though I can’t remember his name, I remember his words like yesterday when he said that “All of our choices of behavior are sinful – it is up to us to choose the lesser of those sins.” To this day I cannot bring myself to accept that premise. I am certain that my God is a benevolent God and I just know that at least one of my behavioral choices in any given situation is not sinful – back to the seven deadly sins.
Allow me to use the text from the Christian Bible since it is probably more widely known and is so similar to the Hebrew Bible. I am unable to find reference to the seven deadly sins in an Islamic text, but there may be one there as well and I just haven’t looked in the right place. In the King James Bible, Book of Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 16-19 we find:
16. These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18. An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19. A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
These passages are, for the Christians, the origin of the seven deadly sins as we find them today. As I have said, these passages are very similar to those I find in the Hebrew Bible as well.
As I examine these passages, I am struck by how closely they describe the politicians of today. Just the other day Former Governor Mike Huckabee took to the microphone to comment on President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. The President had made reference to some of the atrocities committed in the name of religion over history and reminded everybody that the atrocities being committed today, while more vicious, are coming from similar motivations. Governor Huckabee, who has also served as pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, said this: “The very comments that President Obama made are nothing short of shocking,” Huckabee said. “How on earth he could go back 1,000 years in history and pick up something that Christians did in response to Muslim aggression and somehow blame Christians for the burning of a Jordanian pilot, for cutting off the heads of children who are Christians? It’s just absolutely stunning to me.” He went on to say, “Everything he does is against what Christians stand for, and he’s against the Jews in Israel,” Huckabee said. “The one group of people that can know they have his undying, unfailing support would be the Muslim community.”
Governor Huckabee’s example is just what we’re talking about here. His message is simple and strong; logical almost beyond argument; demonstrates his conviction to his ideals, is wrong on every point, and demonstrates several of the seven deadly sins. About the only thing he did not do was “shed innocent blood” with his comments. And, I suspect, you and I both see that his rhetoric was a bit uncivil for someone who would be our President. Governor Huckabee should take some time to review his religious teachings because it is clear to me that some of those teachings have faded with time. Yes, this is exactly what we’re talking about and Governor Huckabee is not alone.
Going back to that dinner gathering on January 20th, 2715 we find some names we recognize as obstructionists in the years since. We would be wrong to generalize and suggest that all Republicans hold similar views to those represented at that dinner table. We would be more wrong to believe that those fifteen Republicans were the only ones to harbor such thoughts.
In closing, we all must remember that we too are human and subject to the same influences as we go about our daily lives. So when the politician comes to the microphone with a bottle of snake oil, it is up to each and every one of us to listen beyond their words and cast aside the temptations they offer in favor of finding our way to a more truthful path. This is one of our freedoms and it comes with responsibility.
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