Hawthorn Hill by Richard DeRosa
Forget the Beltway, Rethink Stale Assumptions, Consider Course Alterations
My January 12 essay ended with these words: “Forget the Beltway.” Given the embarrassing shenanigans of the past few months, that sentiment still holds true. The fact that many years ago it took 133 votes to elect a speaker in no way negates the atrocity of it all. I used to excuse the political conundrums that we continually embroil ourselves in as just more evidence of the messiness of democracy. That just does not cut it anymore. There has to be a better way. For instance, the fact that any side holds a statistically insignificant margin of victory over another that then enables it to exercise such undeserved power over the other is in no way defensible, either on moral grounds or any rudimentary sense of fair play. The world the founders lived in and imagined does not exist. Our system of governance has not kept pace with the exigencies of the world we now live in. I wish I had the answers; I do not. But one thing—based on some experiences of late, as well as recent readings—I do know for sure. There are better ways to skin this cat. And I believe (and this surprises me, because it is antithetical to what I have believed most of my life) we would be much better off, despite the pitfalls of any system of governance, expecting far less from the circus the Beltway has become, and look more to ourselves for solutions to common problems. There is, and always should be, a role for central government.
