Orszag and Obama. Apparently Orszag is telling Obama, "tell them that while we do this." And, Obama is about to suggest that Orszag have another apple. Take a look at this written statement by Orszag:
In an 1814 letter to John Taylor, John Adams wrote that “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That may read today like an overstatement, but it is certainly true that our democracy finds itself facing a deep challenge: During my recent stint in the Obama administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, it was clear to me that the country’s political polarization was growing worse—harming Washington’s ability to do the basic, necessary work of governing. If you need confirmation of this, look no further than the recent debt-limit debacle, which clearly showed that we are becoming two nations governed by a single Congress—and that paralyzing gridlock is the result.
So what to do? To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.
"Radical" indeed! This point of view is quite typical of this Administration. Over the course of the past several months, Obama has wished for a system that would allow him the ability to govern without the interference of Congress or the courts. Bill Maher supports this idea as does Van Jones and Michael Moore and Bill Ayers and Cass Sunstein.
The problem to which Orszag refers, is not solved by "less democracy." Rather, the solution to federal gridlock is the return of power to the individual states.
The designers of the American politic did not envision an all encompassing central government or they would have installed one, from the very beginning. Understand there is no reason to believe that John Adams believed that "democracy" was the enemy of "democracy." Rather, the true threat to the American democratic dream is the threat of those who hate a capitalist economy and a free and open republic.
Understand that we - the United States of America - are not a simple "democracy." Take it to the bank, the second the Left becomes the major majority in this country, it will work for a pure, winner takes all, "democracy." Minorities will not have a vote that matters because that does not exist in a pure "democracy." When you see a union sign touting "democracy," you are witnessing a social movement (unions) that does not believe in representative governance. Look at Venezuela and their socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez. He was VOTED into office by a simple majority and given the power of dictatorship by that majority. That is "democracy" and that is the kind of democracy that can destroy itself. We seem to believe that "democracy" and "freedom" are terms that are attached to one another. No necessarily so, that is if you are not part of the majority opinion.
But, of course, people like Peter Orszag and Barack Obama know this. It is beginning to appear that the conservative giant that is the "silent majority" is finally waking up to the fact that this nation is under attack by those who are pushing for a "fundamental transformation of the United States of America." Turns out that these traitorous clowns are intent on doing away with our republican form of democracy, and replacing it with the rule of a simple majority.
Orszag's version of transformation, is even worse. He wants the ruling class - as long as they are Marxist in type - to set in place "legal" procedures and legislative solutions that work, even when the Left is not in power. That is the effect of that last statement in the quote above.
In the end, it is not democracy that we should fear. Rather, it is the inner maneuverings of those willing to use the democratic process in an effort to defeat the intentions of the founding fathers. Chavez used "democracy" to defeat "democracy." And it that very example, embedded within a much more complex social reality, that we need to fear.
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