Reflections The Day After Super Tuesday

It could just be me but it seems like we are voting more and accomplishing less with each election held in our various democracies.

Super Tuesday, as it is affectionately known, was held yesterday in the United States and a raft of delegates were awarded to the various Republican Candidates. Despite all the talking head predictions, nothing has been decided and while Mitt Romney remains the front-runner, he hasn’t wrapped the nomination up and the also-rans refuse to bow gracefully out of the race for the good of the party and perhaps the country.

Barbara Bush called this the worst political campaign she’s ever witnessed and I tend to agree with her. Billions are being spent to indulge three old men and a guy in a sweater-vest in their lust for power. None bring much that’s any different from the other three to the table and this orgy of empty rhetoric and ridiculous pandering is far from over. The only real question right now is, how much damage can this primary campaign do to the Republican Party? It’s difficult to believe it could possibly do much more than it already has but after yesterday’s results, it appears there is still more damage to do.

It isn’t any better anywhere else.

In Greece, people riot in the streets to protest austerity measures forced on them by the spendthrift ways of previous governments. In Egypt, people rioted against the provisional government put in place to transition Egypt from Mubarak’s reign to a new democracy even as the elections were about to be held.

In Canada, we’ve had 5 elections since 2000, that’s one election every 2 years in a country where the typical life of a government should be 4-5 years.

None of this includes bi-elections to replace retiring or representatives who have died in office nor does it include all of the municipal, county, regional, provincial/state or other elections held in various countries.

Like Winston Churchill, I believe that democracy is a terrible form of government, it’s just better than all of the alternatives but it seems to me that a simple concept like democracy has been hijacked by politicians and their political parties. Elections and preparing for elections has become a bigger part of their reason to exist, than governing.

In fact, I have come to believe that governing is increasingly in the hands of the bureaucracy with only minor tinkering from whichever politicians have most recently been elected.

Think about it.

Most of the regulations, laws, taxes and other things that get imposed on us are created by bureaucracies. Politicians may pontificate in their legislatures and even pass the legislation created by the bureaucracy but in the end, it’s the bureaucracies that actually put it all together and then implement it. Sometimes, the very legislation Party A introduced but failed to get adopted before their term ended, and which was opposed by Party B, gets implemented by Party B once they’re elected. Why? It’s because the bureaucracy remains constant. Only the politicians and their parties change.

Most politicians don’t have much experience with running a business let alone a government and many of the issues are complex and far-reaching. Politicians have difficulty focusing far enough ahead to plan on where to have lunch. It’s small wonder they tend to let bureaucracies do the heavy lifting.

Of course, that begs the question. Why do we need politicians and their parties when all they do is spend obsene amounts of money trying to get elected, draft legislation that is favourable to themselves, their parties and their ‘friends’ and which generally treat the electorate as no more intelligent than participants on the Jerry Springer Show?

I’ll grant you that there is a slight possibility that this an over-simplification and that political leaders actually do some governing. They embroil us in wars we can’t afford and in which we shouldn’t be involved. They attend international conferences where they agree the situation is grave and then further agree to do nothing except forging agreement on the conference press release. They pass money bills to make sure that the bureaucracy is fed and the social assistance checks go out on time and they dream up legislation that never seems to actually address the real and long-term issues facing our societies (like poverty, infrastructure and crime) but which always give them lots to talk about on Meet The Press, CNN or CTV.

The simple fact is that, we the people, need people to represent us in government. We can’t all drop by our respective legislatures for a discussion of the issues. Occupy has been trying that out without much success. The ‘up twinkles’ approach to democracy isn’t any better than what we already have, it’s just funnier to watch.

What we need is true representative democracy. By that I mean a democracy where the politician represents his or her constituents, not a political party, power base or Super PAC. We need people with integrity, vision and a strong moral sense of public service, people who see serving their neighbours as an honour rather than as a path to power and wealth.

Overthrowing a dictatorship or other tyranny isn’t of much use if it only going to be replaced by democratically elected party hacks who are no better than those who were overthrown.

In the end, I look at what passes for political leadership in my country (Canada) and I am disgusted by what I see. It is nothing but the basest partisanship and a lack of principles. It is political parties that confuse not getting caught as being morality. It is no better anywhere else and I despair for my friends in the United States who have watched billions spent over the past ten months but have precious little from which to choose despite the expenditure.

As long as we continue to believe that it is only the candidate or political leader we don’t like who is the problem, the political parties and their strategists will continue to  win the game and our system(s) will never change for the better.

We will continue to watch our democracies be eroded by immorality, greed, influence and sheer stupidity.

It almost makes you long for the good old days of a Julius Caesar.

© 2012 Maggie's Bear

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