State of the Onion
"This city is saturated. It's like an overripe fruit that's begun to stink." -Akira
If you've ever handled a pet snake (as opposed to one that will immediately bite you and wriggle away), you know that the head end is constantly looking for an escape route while the tail end is always wrapped around something for security. You can't just pick it up or put it down, you have to use both hands to manipulate it. The federal government is like this, rampant yet entrenched. There is a "hunter-seeker" dept. and a "cover our tracks" dept. The Democratic Freedom Caucus and the Republican Liberty Caucus both promote (or purport to) libertarian-like sentiments within their parties acting as the "conscience" of the party, as opposed to its political action committee.
Textbooks illustrate government as being a trio of overlapping circles which share authority or a hierarchy like a family tree in which it is passed down, but any institution is a series of concentric circles or insulation designed to prevent actions and collaboration from taking place. No task proceeds directly, in the General Assembly almost no bill can be passed by any one person no matter how much support it has. It must endure a gauntlet of subcommittees which protect the law from decision-making like the layers of an onion (as Roy Scherer explained in his Wednesday report a "lockbox" financial committee makes even total approval not approval). The only sure course is rejection, the only undisputed statement is silence. Our presidential contenders debate the choices and alliances they would make as if it won't require superhuman ability to establish this "overlap" with congress. When was the last time the Executive and Legislative branches acted in synchrony even when one party held them both?
If legislation is the electricity that makes a republic work, the process has been covered with circuit-breakers. If it is the highway through which needed actions reach the citizen it is full of roadblocks. Even in the smallest institutions (a community meeting, a volunteer event committee) have you noticed increasing layers of people who have no definable job except to make sure point A gets to point B, drawing no joy from this but reacting belligerently when something messes it up? There is no decision-making except to decide to keep things the way they are. There is no freedom for any individual who took on this job, unless you count executive privilege.
The LP's official response to Monday's State of the Union address by chairman William Redpath is at www.lp.org/media/article_562.shtml. LP candidate Steve Kubby posted his own preemptive response at www.kubby2008.com before the address, saying Bush will be "putting lipstick on a pig".* The powers recognize what we libs know that in a stagnant environment the only way to get anything done is throw a wrench in the works, whatever can make a hole is our window to change. (In the words of the evil empire from Star Wars, "I've analyzed their attack sir and there is a danger".) The safeguards prevent individual action by any citizen, so even the maintainers of this system are forfeiting their own ability to act on any agenda. We can see the frustration of everyone who runs for office whether they are senators beyond dissatisfaction with the Bush administration or bickering presidential candidates, and yet they endorse this sedentism. A union is a group of consenting individuals. An onion is something inert that just keeps growing in the interest of self-preservation. Regardless of what one wants to accomplish we can either allow it to keep adding to itself or we can bust it open. And like an onion, it smells and makes you want to cry.
*www.kubby2008.com
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