The "Greatest Political Evil"

This point cannot be made too often or too clearly or too categorically. The US Congress does not and cannot work when it is as hyper-partisan as it is in 2021.

The new Biden Administration has caused some citizens to hope that Washington can get back to normal. They see two different reason for hope. first, they believe that Biden will be more reasonable that Trump, will be less combative and insulting, and will instill a happier mood on Capitol Hill. They also believe that more can get done because one party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. But the slender party majorities — especially in the Senate — are not enough.

With the even split in the US Senate, the Democrats will still fail to pass legislation. The obvious solution — the solution that the founders intended and every American school child is taught — is for every member to vote as their conscience and the wishes of their constituents dictates. But that’s now what happens in Washington anymore.

It is not just a crabby, pessimistic thing to say that politics has destroyed good government. It is the truth. The whole business of Congress is jockeying for political advantage. Consider this snip from an article by Ryan Cooper in The Week.

. . . holding out a fake promise of bipartisan compromise to get Democrats to whittle down their proposals with the intention of voting against them anyway, no matter what. The worse the bill, the less Democrats will be able to take credit for helping the American people. The more Republicans jam up the Senate calendar and delay things, the less Democrats will be able to get done . . . and the closer the midterms election will be.

And later in the same article:

. . . the average Republican senator is much more conservative and far crazier than he or she was in 2009. . . Basically, any effort to get Republican votes to help Democrats govern is 100 percent foredoomed.

Look at the actions being discussed here:

• “fake promise of bipartisan compromise”

• “take credit for helping”

• “jam up the Senate calendar and delay things”

• “the closer the midterm election will be”

• “help democrats govern”

Note that the will of the citizens is not mentioned. Neither is the “best policy” from an objective point of view. Of course, this article only reflects how cooper views Washington. But other sources also emphasize the political advantages and disadvantages over the effective representation of citizens’ interests.

There are two very different views about how Congress ought to represent constituents. One view says that each member should go to Washington and vote the way the majority of folks back home would if they were sitting in the chair he or she is sitting in. The other view is that the congressional representative ought to take advantage of his or her greater access to information, and ought to make a well-informed decision, even if that means voting differently than the folks would.

Both those views of representation have some good reasoning behind them. But the important thing to note today is that neither party is doing either of those things. Members of both parties are maneuvering and jockeying to get control and hold onto control of as many political offices as they can, and also jockeying to claim as much credit for their party and deny any credit to the other party.

John Adams

The best interests of the country are not the issue. Of course, politicians talk about what “the American people” want or need or deserve. But they use those words to defend the actions they’ve decided to do for their selfish political reasons.

The founders intended each representative to act on behalf of their district and their constituents. And they knew that outside influences might steer them away from that. Of all the possible outside influences, Johan Adams believed political parties, or “factions” were the worst danger. Adams worried in a letter to a friend about the dangers of political parties:

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

American politics in 2021 cannot be described better than Adams does here: “Two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.”

It ought to be a wake-up call to all citizens that “the greatest possible evil” has come upon us. The problem is not the Republicans. And it is not the Democrats. The problem is the hyper-partisan two-party system itself.