The Art of the PreposterousPolitical junkies don’t sink too deep into addiction without first cultivating a pretty high tolerance for the absurd. We may think in sunnier moments that politics is the art of the possible, but this month it seems to be the art of the preposterous. The business of government by nature is an incendiary mix of ego, ideology, and demagoguery – routinely fanning flames of whimsy and mischief that make you wonder how anything constructive ever comes out the other side. But for some reason the last few weeks have been particularly painful, offering up everything from the dangerous to the hypocritical to the ignorant to the outrageous to the bizarre. Let’s take ‘em one by one.
Dangerous is the only adjective for the actions of Congressional Republicans blocking forward movement on U.S. ratification of a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. In their requisite talk show appearances following the Senate’s defeat of the pact, GOP mouthpieces spoke solemnly of a substantively flawed treaty that could and should not survive their sage scrutiny. Patently obvious to everyone else was their naked political posturing aimed not at preserving global security or minimizing the risk of nuclear conflagration, but at creating bragging rights for the manufacture of a policy defeat for the devil Clinton. Elevating vindictiveness over statesmanship, the rubes who fashion GOP strategy in Congress would rather embarrass Bill Clinton than build U.S. prestige on the world stage. Test ban? U.N. dues? Non-proliferation? Peacekeeping? No time for that stuff when political revenge is on the line.
On to hypocrisy, which nicely captures the collapse of Elizabeth Dole’s bid for the White House – an uncanny reprise of the extinction of Lamar Alexander’s. At the core of both failed campaigns lies money, or more precisely the lack of it: both identified campaign finance as the undoing of their presidential aspirations. George W. raised tens of millions; they didn’t. The hypocrisy is their refusal to acknowledge that our system of political campaign financing is the metastasized cancer of the American political process. Neither recognized the clear need for systemic reform that would change the role of money in politics, except possibly (in Lamar’s case, anyway) in the direction of expanded influence for well-heeled interests. Tennessee Senator Bill Frist and his obstructionist GOP colleagues saw to it last week that meaningful reform would once again wither on the Congressional vine. Dole and Alexander said and did nothing to challenge their momentum. In the end their campaigns imploded into a vacuum of cash. Good riddance to them both.
Ignorance took center stage last week when a conservative interest group launched a drive to post copies of the ten commandments in congressional offices, schools, courts, statehouses, and any other inappropriate public space that might have them. Frustrated with risky public art, loose morals, loose bowel movements, whatever, religious conservatives apparently want to make sure the establishment clause of the First Amendment is violated wherever possible. Several Republican lawmakers, sworn to protect the constitution but manifestly in need of an introduction to constitutional law, are ready to jump on the bandwagon. As Indiana Rep. Mark Souder cluelessly put it, “I don’t understand what they feel the threat is.” Conservatives who worry endlessly about fiscal austerity might want to spend some quality time pondering all the public money that will inevitably be spent defending in court the constitutionally indefensible.
Looking locally, outrageous is the word for the lethargic response by Metro government officials to last weeks’ alarming Nashville Scene story describing how employees of a private security firm routinely inflicted racially motivated abuse on Hispanic residents of certain Nashville apartment complexes. The Scene reported that Metro police officers knew of the abuse but did nothing. The story included Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron’s facile denial: “there is no reason to believe” that officers were involved. Hellooooo, Chief Turner? Mayor Purcell? Anybody willing to take some leadership responsibility here? How about we we try something other than knee jerk dismissiveness as a public relations strategy when citizens make serious and credible allegations of grotesque misconduct? A few days after the story broke the police department apologized for its torpid attention to previous citizen complaints about this – an apology that rings hollow considering the gravity of the allegations. It’s hard to imagine a situation that cries out more plainly for enforceable civilian review of police behavior – something pushed hard by community activists a few years ago but dismissed as unnecessary by Phil Bredesen.
And lastly, in a month of exuberant political haplessness, there was Metro Council’s much lampooned resolution on Halloween – the vote to suggest that folks do whatever it is they might ordinarily do on October 31 on October 30 instead. The temptation, of course, is to skewer the sponsor of the bill, rookie council member Lynn Williams, as a pitiable lightweight who needs to do some serious thinking about the point of municipal government. An alternative is to shower Williams’s constituents with sympathy for having elected a simpleton to represent them. But then one realizes: 18 members of the council voted for this lunacy. Half the council lacked the infinitesimal gumption needed to see the folly here? Apparently term limits and brain limits go hand in hand. Such is the depth of political insight as the millennium draws to a close. On to next month.
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