Power and Governing

One of the lessons of the "Arab Spring" is that having power and governing are not the same thing. Hosni Mubarak, of Egypt, for example, spent far too much time trying to cling to power and too little time governing. He crushed dissent using torture, bribery and naked violence. He funded his efforts with outside (mostly American) money, and so did not rely on Egyptians for his resources; he never really had to appeal to them for much. As a result, his legitimacy eroded over time. Egyptians of all stripes, including, in retrospect, his own military, did not believe he deserved the support he needed to retain his position. Ironically -- but inevitably -- his concentration on power led to his loss of it.

No current American politician equates to Hosni Mubarak. Not even John Yoo ever advocated the kind of widespread use of torture employed by the Egyptian secret police. Not even Karl Rove, one of the most cynical and power-hungry men alive, seeks to refashion the constitution solely to maintain his own power. Barack Obama, no matter what your view of the health care law, is not grabbing permanent power, and Nancy Pelosi may be pushy, but she's not brutal

Over the past ten years, however, and maybe since the 2000 election, too few of our leaders have set aside considerations of pure power for the sacrifice of governing. They concentrate so closely on being elected that they forget what the ultimate purpose of those elections are. The debacle around the debt ceiling is the purest example of this folly, and the debates to come about the budget, the economy, health care, environmental regulation and the use of US foreign policy will all depend of the state of mind of our leaders regarding their final goals.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to focus on these things here, beginning with President Obama's performance in the White House.

What Government is For

Last week I drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville, North Carolina, as part of a family vacation. Even more than the parkways around New York City and Washington, DC, the Blue Ridge is a park-way. It's not an especially practical way to get from one place to another if you are in any sort of hurry because the roads winds around and through several mountains. The speed limit never exceeds 50 mph. The views are stunning, and hiking trailheads apeear evey couple of miles along the way.

As a feat of engineering, the road is remarkable. The energy, resources and ingenuity it must have taken to carve the road bed from the hills without doing irreparable damage (which, I'm sure is relative) are awe-inspiring. The road was built as part of the New Deal, with federal money.

As I drove along, I was both impressed an saddened as I thought about these facts. At one time in our nation's histort, we allowed our government to acheive things like this. It built bridges and dams and roads and hospitals. Some of things may have been boondoggles, but many helped create a powerful economy and others were acts of beauty; some were all the above. Now we seem to want government only to promote private wealth. Anything the government can do for the common good or the common wealth is disparaged or even outlawed by the courts as an overextension.

We have big problems, and none bigger than the crises that will be caused by climate change. Government -- collective thinking and expenditure -- is the only way we can weather these crises. Will we allow ourselves to succeed as we once did?