“Why So Many Americans Hate
Politics”
According to a
2014 Washington Post article with the
above headline, the author Dan Balz cites the following statistics: “Three in four
Americans are dissatisfied with the way the political system works,” and “More
than eight in 10 say they trust the government to do the right thing only some
of the time.”¹
According to Gallup, Congress’s approval rating fell from a high of 84% in
2001 to a low of 9% in 2014.²
Lest one get the impression that public disdain for
politics and politicians is a recent phenomenon, it is important to note that
it appears to be almost as old as written history itself.
“Just because you do not
take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in
you.”
Pericles (495-429 BC)
This rather subtle assertion by Pericles may be one of the earliest written warnings to citizens about the dangers—not so much of “politics” itself but—of “not taking an interest in politics.”
Less subtle and more direct was the following warning on the same subject from Plato (428-348 BC):
"The penalty that good
men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse
than themselves.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) provided a similar warning
much more relevant to American Democracy:
“We in America do not have government by the
majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
The obvious implication of Jefferson’s words: If you don’t participate, don’t complain about the outcome.
American Democracy
America declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776 on a handwritten parchment containing 1478 beautifully crafted words and signatures. But that document certainly did not grant independence. It merely notified the World of the Colonists’ legitimate grievances and their steadfast determination to free themselves from British tyranny. It also provoked the anticipated bloody war with Britain which they knew would require mighty deeds and incredible sacrifice to earn the independence which they sought.
Independence would not be granted as a gift; it would have to be wrested from the hands of the tyrants.
“Taxation Without
Representation is Tyranny”
According to Dictionary.com, the above heading was a slogan coined by the Colonists in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War.³ In addition:
“The colonists were not allowed to choose representatives to parliament in London, which passed the laws under which they were taxed. To be taxed only with the consent of one's representatives in Parliament was a particularly cherished right of the people under English law, a right dating back to Magna Carta in the thirteenth century. Each additional tax caused fresh resentment among the colonists. Taxation without representation is one of the principal offenses of Britain listed in the Declaration of Independence.”
It’s All About Control
The article goes on to say that: “…people can be content with either power or choice—or both—but that having neither makes them distinctly dissatisfied.”
The above explanation for dissatisfaction does not fully explain
the frustration of the Colonists because they were clearly not seeking control
over England—but rather some control over their own local affairs.
The Protected versus the
Unprotected
Perhaps a better metaphor for understanding the
dissatisfaction of the Colonists, as well as that of others whose rights are
being trampled, is the one proposed by columnist Peggy Noonan with the above
heading. Her recent WSJ article⁵
includes the following relevant quotes:
“There are the protected and the unprotected. The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it. The unprotected are starting to push back, powerfully.”
“The protected are the accomplished, the secure, the successful—those who have power or access to it.”
“Because they are protected they feel they can do pretty much anything, impose any reality. They’re insulated from many of the effects of their own decisions.”
Making Rules that Exempt the
Rule-Makers
In previous blog posts, we have addressed this proclivity of elected and appointed officials at the national and state levels to make laws and rules from which they themselves are exempt. For example, Congress passed laws prohibiting sexual harassment but exempted itself from those laws for more than 30 years.
Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned workplace sexual harassment for any employer with 15 or more employees. Congress managed to exempt itself from those sexual harassment laws until passage of the Congressional Accountability act of 1995.
Privatization Without Representation is also Tyranny
Closer to home, Pennsylvania’s
elected officials have been privatizing the fourteen PASSHE universities for
the past three decades by reducing the State share of PASSHE’s annual revenue
from 63% in 1984 to 25% in 2013, while the share provided by PASSHE students,
parents and alumni donors grew from 37% to 75%.
PASSHE’s Majority Financial Stakeholders are being heavily taxed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania while gaining no representation in the PASSHE councils where all key decisions affecting them are made.
As with the Colonists in their quest to throw off taxation without representation, PASSHE’s students, parents and alumni donors must recognize that their quest for fair representation on PASSHE’s governance boards will not be granted as a gift. It will also need to be wrested from the hands of today’s tyrants, but not with a physical war, but with a powerful war of ideas, words, and political activism.
Every PASSHE student, parent and alumni donor must take the warnings of Pericles, Plato and Jefferson seriously; Politics has taken an interest in the majority financial stakeholders that is punishing them financially, and they had better start taking interest in the political activism that will be needed to throw off that tyranny and gain control over their lives and their local affairs.
To be continued.
¹ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/why-so-many-americans-hate-politics/2014/08/23/e56dbaf0-18d5-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html.
² http://www.gallup.com/poll/183128/five-months-gop-congress-approval-remains-low.aspx.
³ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/taxation-without-representation-is-tyranny.
⁴ http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/its-all-about-control.html.
⁵ http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-rise-of-the-unprotected-1456448550.
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