A “Sit-in” happened in Congress! Congressional rules ignored!
This is more evidence of the fact that our system is breaking down.
For now, set aside the issue, the why of their action, and look at the means or method toward their end goal: A Congressional “sit-in” in the House of Representatives! A calculated defiance of congressional rules! What does this tell us?
It tells us what we already know, that normal healthy congressional procedures, operations, and ways and means are breaking down—have broken down. It tells us that the system is in need of reparative attention. Of course, we already knew this. But what we don’t know, what we can’t foresee, are the inevitable dysfunctional consequences of a broken system that is about to crash.
I don’t want to sound like Chicken Little, but I think this is a bad sign for our country. The fact that our representative legislative machinery is breaking down should send off alarms. Sure, it still operates—like a dying battery that wearily cranks ever so slowly and just barely manages to get the car started. It is not a good sign.
Consider machinery in general. Mechanically speaking, a well built, well maintained, and well-oiled machine, runs smoothly, almost effortlessly. It hums, even sings. It rings true to its purpose. It operates as it should and accomplishes its task as intended.
But if the machine begins to show signs of wear and tear, e.g., parts get cracked and/or damaged, and no attention is given to necessary repairs, the whole machine is in danger of complete ruin. Anyone who has lost, what was at face value, a nice car, because of complete engine failure for lack of proper repair and upkeep, knows of what I speak.
When our forefathers constructed our constitutional democratic system, establishing personal rights and privileges and the three branches of government with appropriate checks and balances, their aim was to build a healthy operative working political system. The system was built to rise above petty power-play and childish grid-lock. It was a system for the people (by the people, of the people, etc.). It was a system built to bring balance and respect for individual and community, as well as for State and Federal boundaries. The operative key word here is balance!
No one party or person or group of people is to have-it-all or is to control-it-all. There is to be balance, give-and-take, and negotiation toward union—unity without super-imposed forced conformity. Burdens and losses are to be shared so as to lighten the load upon any one part of the overall national body. There is to be collective responsibility for national interests as well as personal and community interests. After tough negotiations and challenging battles of opinion, perspective, and attitude, there is still to be settled cooperation between differing parties and opposing sides for the greater good, for the benefit of most, if not all.
It no longer works that way in today’s context. This is why we are beginning to see more unusual and unprecedented dramatic performances being done in Congress these days.
Call me Chicken Little, but I believe it forebodes an ill future for our government system as we once knew it. If we can’t fix this now, we are heading for a future government that our children will regret to have inherited. It may take a while, but it will come.
Historical perspective: every great empire, in world history, has eventually imploded from within (extreme wealth in the hands of a few, greed, corruption, political maneuvering and power plays, inside fighting, turf battles, etc.) and, having become weakened from within, is eventually conquered from without—its leaders having become too selfishly myopic, wasteful and exploitive, arrogant and power hungry, and “in it for themselves” rather than for the people as a whole, leading to systemic breakdown—be it the Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, or now the American “Empire.”
Wait and see. Time will tell. Maybe not in this generation or even the next; nevertheless, history shows that we humans have changed very little. We forever doom ourselves through our own petty self-destructive behavior.
No comments:
Post a Comment