Government is not About Waiting

Recently I've been musing about a line of debate on government priorities that was used against our legislation banning the interstate transport of captive primates, chimpanzees in particular. Although it passed by about a four to one margin and came immediately on the heels of the horrific chimpanzee attack in Connecticut, where a pet chimpanzee ripped a neighbor woman's face off, it was interesting to follow the line of argument that Congress should not be dealing with such issues when there are much larger topics to address. This argument has been picked up and used in other contexts as a favorite of the right wing and particularly our Republican minority in the House. When the minority was in the majority, they used the argument repeatedly that this wasn't the most important thing in the world and we couldn't be bothered.

That was how they operated for the twelve years they controlled the House of Representatives, when Tom Delay and his ghost controlled the House of Representatives. There were a few major, often misguided initiatives: tax cuts for those who needed it least, Patriot Act, “bankruptcy reform," and no time for anything else. At best, this was a rhetorical device that sounded good on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, since it appeared to be superficially true and allowed them to deflect attention to what their financial backers and ideological supporters felt was important.

They have a fundamental philosophical difference about the role of government and I think a fatally flawed one at that. Governing is not about waiting until things become so bad or you have beaten down the opposition or you have a peculiar political leverage to spring some massive initiative. There is a role for reform and heaven knows Barack Obama and his administration are looking at some fundamentally transformational items.

At its core, governance, public administration and the legislative process is the ability to do all the important details, to keep on top of the day-to-day work, to understand how to keep the ball rolling, to avoid breakdowns and meltdowns, its about putting the pieces together. Its day-to-day administration to avoid problems. It's the countless legislative fixes to keep the wheels of government turning, making it less necessary for massive transformational reform and reorganization, and that when you do you're more likely right.