Mastering the political craft entails learning when you can fool a few, or fool them all, and keep from making a fool of yourself. In big time politics, the partisan stuff, this is why they hire professionals.
Locally, county-city races can be a lot more fun to watch. That is until guys come round spiking campaign contributions, organizing special interest lobbies, and so scripting candidates the only fun left is to watch them try and read their lines or respond to a question with a completely inappropriate talking point.
Notwithstanding the illusions of our founders, particularly their faith in the citizenry to check the greed of special interests and corporate beasts, in fact, in an increasingly complex world, not only are the issues beyond simple analysis, we've got professionals intentionally distracting and misleading voters.
Orwell understood that language can corrupt thought and warned, "political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible." Sadly, we lap it up.
The fact is the real issues are, in general, either too complicated for the public to decide, or they're too lazy or busy to try, which leaves the field wide open for those who have a particular interest in getting the taxpayer to pull their wagon or government to groom their ox.
And it works. Thirty years into what historians surely will, henceforth, call the Un-Enlightenment, as we return to feudalism in a class war to undo more than two centuries of political progress, fools are mesmerized by political oratory that inspires them to accept their own impoverishment by increasingly powerful elites who master us financially and will place the average person, and whole nations, in debt peonage.
As those with the most take everything from those with the least, the rest are silent and scurry to protect what little they have; hoping it will stop with those who have less than themselves.
Here at home, it is not hard to understand, then, why so few politicians speak for the public, and so many listen to special interests. The public seems to divide into two groups. Those who can be manipulated by fear and selfishness, and those who assume elected representatives will look out for them. So I guess, in either case, maybe we're all fools.
In the last few weeks, it's just a coincidence, several county council-members, and planning commissioners as well, have remarked they only see private interests, or more precisely, their lawyers, arguing for policies. That is: all they see are the well represented enjoying the indefensible being defended by the well paid.
One self described progressive even challenged me recently, "If the public's so interested in protecting Lake Whatcom, how come they're not at these meetings telling us that." So if you think the elected get it, think again.
It is hard to keep the general welfare in mind when all you hear is the constant pleas of the self interested representing themselves to be the public.
Add to that, the equating of money with speech, the substitution of advertising for political debate, and it's not so hard to understand the shift in focus from the general welfare to the bazaar we now call the political process; where almost anything will be traded for a few pieces of silver.
Well, if the public hasn't the time or attention to better understand issues, and appreciating that well spun rhetoric can create the impression that one's particular interests are the public's; it really is the duty of elected officials to resist mistaking the pleas of special interests for a public outcry.
When the attorneys, paid lobbyists and consultants materialize to argue their patrons' point of view is the public interest, elected officials should be judiciously skeptical and place a substantial burden on these scissor-bills to prove the public in general has something to gain; or at least nothing to lose.
While they are rewarded substantially to achieve some particular goal, these professionals may fool some all of the time, and even fool all once and awhile, but don't fool yourself, remember, they can't fool us all, at least not all of the time.
So when you hear the call to "take back our government," ask yourself, who took it away from us? When some orator asks you to believe, "government is the problem," remember Poor Richard's wisdom, "Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do."
So let us not fool ourselves. And let's not be fooled again.
