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April 18, 2006
I'm No Populist
One of my favorite scenes from the Simpsons is when Prinicple Skinner and Bart's teacher Mrs. Edna Krabappel are debating school issues at the town hall and points out why I could never be a politician in a democracy. Krabappel points out that all they want is 'a small cost-of-living increase and some better equipment and supplies for your children,' which the crowd thinks is very a good idea. Skinner replies, 'Yeah, in a dream world. We have a very tight budget; to do what she's asking, we'd have to raise taxes,' to which the crowd is as oppossed as much as it supported the previous increased spending. Krabappel.replies 'It's your children's future' and there is agreement in the corwd. Skinner says 'It'll cost you' and there is disagreement in the crowd. Krabappel says 'C'mon!' and the crowd agrees, to which Skinner simply rubs his fingers together and the audience knows that means it will cost them in taxes and goes back to opposition.
That is the main problem with a democracy like ours and why I am not a populist. Most people want everything and they get mad when the politicians do not deliver. Jim Geraghty points out how this is working out in today's politics with several issues and that the result is politicians who disappoint everyone and end up with popularity ratings in the high 30's:
As a whole, Americans want their taxes low, spending on their favorite programs to increase, and for the deficit to be reduced. In fact, on just about every major political issue, the public at large, when speaking through polls and man-on-the-street interviews, wants it both ways.We get angry over high gas prices, but we don't want to drill in Alaska. Or off the east coast. We don't mind 50 states having fifty different fuel blend requirements, or local, state and federal taxes that can add up to anywhere from 33 cents (N.J.) to 62 cents (N.Y.) per gallon. We don't want ugly oil refineries anyplace near communities, even though that's where the demand for gasoline is.
On energy in general, we don't like building power plants. Even clean coal pollutes too much for most of the environmental crowd. We can't build nuclear power plants, because Jane Fonda was in a scary movie about them in the 1970s. Wind farms kill birds who fly into the blades. We can't build a wind farm off Cape Cod because it would ruin the view of a certain environmentalist senator.
We hate sprawl and like efforts to preserve undeveloped areas and that beautiful countryside, but we find housing prices to be exorbitant, and lament the lack of nice neighborhoods with housing affordable for young families.
For the issues Geraghty raises I am fine with picking from a limited number of options. For the budget I would keep taxes low and lower the deficit by cutting spending. That puts me in a solid minority of people most of whom make up a large part of the republican base, but do not make up many republican politicians. Many democrats would raise taxes and people like president Bush are ok with a deficit. Geraghty points out the flaw with relying on the populace to make complex decisions:
So I can't help but get a little cynical when I see low approval ratings across the board (Bush 37 approval/56 disapproval; GOP Congress 38 approval/51 disapproval; Congressional Democrats 38 approval/47 disapproval). The majority of voters want it both ways, they want their cake and to eat it too. They reject Plan A and Plan B, and keep demanding a logically impossible 'Plan C' with all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks. This is the 'magic wand' school of public policy.I'm generally big on 'trusting the people.' But when you get to the thornier issues in public policy – immigration, entitlement reform, energy, Iraq, immigration - there's a disturbing trend of the public not willing to make tradeoffs. The result is a formula for the status quo; we reject any solution because it involves something we don't want.
In the Simpsons, the magical plan C is using the school to house prisoners from overcrowded jails, which gives the school the fudning it needs without raising taxes, along with helping out the prisons and Skinner says 'as an added bonus, some of our more troublesome students might be scared straight.' Unfortunately in the real world there are almost no magical plan C's.
The only problem with Geraghty's argument is that I do not think unwillingness to make tradeoffs is all the reason for frustration with politicians. A majority of the population may be unwilling to make tradeoffs, but a lot of people like me are willing. I am mad at the Republican congress because it is responding more to the people who are unwilling to make tradeoffs than it is to me. I do not like the status quo and am willing to sacrifice stuff to change it and I see a political class that does not share my same priorities. With Republicans in general the whole point of the party over the past 25 years or so was two main things: a strong defense and reigning in government spending. For defense it has done a decent job, but it has crapped out on spending over the last eight years. The party as a whole is not even trying any more and many prominent Republicans like Trent Lott and even George W. Bush (who has not vetoed a single spending bill) are actively working against controlling spending.
If I were asked by a pollster what I thought about Bush or Congress they would probably get a farily negative answer right now and I have never voted for a Democrat for national office (I have not always had the choice to vote Republican on the ballot) and I have voted in every national election since I was old enough to vote and am still fairly supportive of the president's foreign policy (along with judges and the economy). The problem for voters like me is that the Democrats are no better at spending and have their heads in the sand about serious defense issues. Does this mean another Ross Perot has a chance (assuming this version of Perot isn't a nutjob) to get my vote? Of all the potential presidential candidates Guliani is my first choice right now partly because I think he has the ability to make tough choices and admit it when that is needed.
Posted by Pete at April 18, 2006 07:57 AM
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