Allergies, Politics, Action and the Supreme Court

When I was a child, my mother had severe allergies. I often wondered how one “caught” an allergy, and as other family members suffered, each in their own way, with allergies, I thanked God that I had been spared. Well, the “sparing” was not to last a lifetime, because I now have allergies, too. But, what separates me from my mother is that I have cortisone that’s safe to use and antihistamines. She had very little except to suffer and try to survive the attacks. I can act.
Then, as I got older - well, in my 20s, if that counts as older - I was immersed in politics, Republican politics. And, naïve that I was, I thought that good ideas, a reasonably good public appearance and someone to manage your rise was all you needed. I learned that ideas counted for very little. It was the managers, the “handlers”, who counted because they could sell almost any idea, or lack thereof, if they were good enough, and the politician up front being presented to the public was only the “pretty face” of it all. I bailed out into law school, even though my handlers were honest and anchored in ideals, because I was sure that they could do better without me to bother them with my ideas.
After law school, I joined a corporate law department, and I felt like I was doing what I had been meant to do. Because of my political background, I got to represent the corporation’s public affairs group. I even wrote the model legislation that became the “it’s okay for corporations to contribute as long as they divulge the amounts and it’s within reason” legislation that spread to Congress and most of the 50 states. I drafted the legislation because I knew that corporations and their ideas and their input were essential to the American political process, and that it was grossly dysfunctional to allow unions to do what corporations were forbidden to do.
But, while I was trying to make the system work better for everyone, the handlers of my legal efforts had other ideas - corporations and unions and political parties and candidates.
It made me understand that, except for an overwhelming occupying army, every country gets the government it deserves.
Why do I tell you this, dear readers?
Because it is time to reconsider all of the above in the light of what’s going on in the world today.
You see, despite the views of Anonymous, I am not calling for Apocalpyse Now.
I still believe that we get what we deserve politically. And, when I see that just 51% of the eligible Egyptians turned out to vote for their new and first “democratically” elected president, I understand just how little we human beings really deserve in our governments. The percentages are not much better in the US or Europe. Surprisingly, Iraq did much better in very trying and dangerous circumstances the first time they were given a democratic vote.
Why do people ignore the most important part of their existence? Why do they not understand that it matters, Matters, who is elected to Congress and it even matters who is elected sheriff or the proverbial dogcatcher.
The flim-flam of people who are professional political “counsel” or “analysts” or “advisors” or “campaign managers” has co-opted us. They have taken away our right and our desire to be an active part of the political process.
And with that separation of politics from the belief of Everyman that he can make a difference and be a player, politics becomes a profession, just like being an engineer or a beautician or a pro tennis player. It means nothing but money, power, TV time and adulation.
Politics is not about any of that. It is about groups of citizens joining together to debate and choose the people who will work for their political structure, large or small, until the same people join together the next time to decide what the future ought to look like and who best will represent it for them.
The notion of citizen politicians died with Franklin D. Roosevelt, I suppose, in America. He hung on to power for 12 years, until he died - and it forced a change in the Constitution to limit a president to two consecutive terms.
If I were re-writing my model legislation today, my focus would not be on who spends how much. That was never the issue. The issue was always ACCESS. Everyone has the right to access to the political process. When that access is eliminated or ignored by the majority, they get what they deserve. Bad leaders. Bad policies. Bad government.
Today’s model legislation ought to focus on how to limit the power of the counsel, advisors, analysts, campaign managers, and all the hangers-on. They have corrupted our political system beyond recognition. Along with citizen politicians we need citizen campaign staff.
That brings me to the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, whose analysis will follow this weekend.
What we ought to take away from the decision is that we were co-opted. By Obama. By his Democratic Congress. By the Supreme Court, for which I have huge respect. But this time they blew it.
It is time to take back the United States. As the Tea Party, despite all its amateur flaws, is trying to do. And Mitt Romney said it very well yesterday.
He will be vilified for his MassachusuettsCare. That is not the issue. He will be vilified for not understanding where the US is going with universal health care. That is not the issue.
The issue, as he put it so succinctly, is what we want from our government and President.
If we are willing to let others decide for us, vote for Obama. If we are willing to let others decide what is best for us without even bothering to ask our opinion, vote for Obama.
But, as Mr. Romney said yesterday, if we have had enough, it is necessary to send Obama back to Chicago, and most of the Democrats in Congress with him.
We in America, and citizens everywhere in the world, get what we deserve in political leaders.
Never has that been most true in America than in 2012.