Myths in Need of Debunking

One of the more irritating features of the current scene is the ease with which myths are propagated and the tenacity they display once circulated. Consider the following sample:

Myth 1 - We are in the grip of a terrible partisan divide unprecedented in its scope and intensity.

This is nonsense. I urge you, dear reader, to look at Bruce Ackerman’s book on the 1800 election and the tensions that nearly destroyed the early republic. Then read Gordon Wood’s magisterial work Empire of Liberty covering the period of American history from 1789 to 1815. And also take a gander at the scurrilous profess of the day. Nothing in the contemporary scene remotely compares to the intensity of those early battles. We need not refer to the Civil War, the populist revolt of the later 19^th century, the Red Scare, etc., etc.

Myth 2 - America is anti-immigrant and Islamophobic.

Again this is poppycock. America is distinctly not anti-immigrant. Many Americans fear a comprehensive immigration policy, true enough, but a comprehensive reform package is neither possible nor desirable. Small steps could be taken, such as making soldiers eligible for a fast tract to citizenship if they volunteer for the armed forces. The idea that Americans are Islamophobic is silly, a product partly of politicians who should not be lecturing people to be tolerant, etc. We are tolerant, and don’t like to be told that we aren’t. There are more Muslims in the US than Episcopalians, and Muslims are generally professionals and well integrated into American society. The Mosque business (I will write a longer blog on this topic) was stirred up by the politicians jumping in and inflaming the issue. Perhaps it can be argued that President Obama had no choice and had to comment. I think he had a choice and displayed poor political judgment by jumping in, and then waffling away from his supposedly bold position. He was denounced by his friends in the media more than he was praised for the original clear defense. It is a local zoning matter. National politicians, stay out of it!

Myth 3 - The Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party.

Not so. This is a political tactic by the left to scare voters back to the fold. It won’t work. Voters are upset and will vote in droves against incumbents, and especially Democratic incumbents. The Republicans have been since Reagan a coalition of fiscal conservatives and cultural conservatives, the former from the west, middle-west and some left in the North. The cultural conservatives are heavily located in the south but not exclusively so. This coalition has cracks and awkward seams, but so has every coalition in American political history. The Tea Party is a collection of disparate elements, but they are neither coherent enough nor powerful enough to “take over” the Republican Party. If you hold hearings and bash the banks, Wall Street, big business, etc., is it any wonder that people are going to feel angry, too? The people didn’t understand that the politicians are engaged in mock anger to their “courage” in fighting the interests.

Myth 4 - Money controls politics and corporate interests are running amuck since the Citizens United case.

I will comment at greater length on this point, but the best scholarship of the role of interest groups is that the left and right groups end to battle themselves to a draw, neutralizing each other by and large. In any case, legislators don’t vote on the basis of money along or largely, and voters don’t vote that way either. Elections are still mostly won, not bought. Big business has not rushed into politics since the Supreme Court decided Citizens United; the big firms have stayed largely on the sidelines. They naturally don’t want their shareholders complaining about funds being wasted in electoral activity. Some medium and small firms have been more active in forming 501(c.)(3) organizations, but why should they not? The hysteria on the left over corporate power grabs is astounding and leaves one gasping.

Myth 5 - Politicians have never been so corrupt, and the political system is dysfunctional.

Politicians in general are more like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts than their more lusty and cynical forbearers. There is much less corruption than at any time in the past. The political system is not dysfunctional. This again is largely propaganda from the political left but also now taken up by the Tea Party because outcomes don’t match somebody’s rather extreme views. We can’t get Cap and Trade because the House bill, what a bad bill that most Americans, not just politicians, didn’t and don’t like – and for very good reasons. The Tea Party says politics reflects the self interests of the insiders and there should be no taxes or almost no taxes. Well, I have news for them You can’t run a society with government, and you can’t run a government without taxes. The issue of the filibuster I will take up another time at greater length. In the meantime prepare yourself by reading Sara Binder and Steve Smith’s book on that peculiar device (and summarized well in the current New Review of Books article by Michael Tomsky). Government is not as bad as it may sometimes seem, and life is not as irrational as well all think from time to time. Go back and consult your Spinoza and understand the limits of necessity.