European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 6, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10the stars and stripes column Jim Fain i the Saddest thing about president Bush a Little caper in lip Reading was that nobody minded. Well maybe a handful of right Wing ideologues who took his promises seriously plus republicans in tight races this year. In main Street America they always knew he was lying. The Only question was when would he come clean. Presidential lying now is not just accepted its expected. Old Smoothie Ronald Reagan helped. Two thirds of americans believe he bed throughout about Iran Contra. Yet he left office the most popular president since polling was alas invented. Bush lacks the Gippert a sales skills but benefits from the lower expectations Reagan helped nurture. What profit in making Campaign promises realistic and truthful when no one expects them to be kept Bush ran his entire Campaign on the premise of anything goes to insure Victory. Head spent most of his life inching toward the Oval office not because of anything he wanted to accomplish but because he had an overwhelming hunger to sit there. Unencumbered by specific ideas or policy goals he changed positions whenever the voter climate changed reversing himself Over the years on such major issues As Vietnam reaganomics Ana abortion on some of them More than once. = Row a new a tre All Piatt pollsters and Media gurus. The pledge of allegiance and Flag nonsense came from focus groups As Aid the Willie Horton smear. Mass polling surfaced environmental concerns so the hired guns decided to drive up Michael Dukakis negatives with a baseless juror Over Boston Harbor. Taxes Are the republicans bread and David s. Broder butter Issue and became a big part of Bush a Appeal after he unfairly used them As a stick to Ward off sen. Bob Dole in the new Hampshire primary. When his no tax vow rescued the Back to the Wall Bush Campaign the a read my lips Quot theatrics at the gop convention were assured. Bush associates put out the word their Brahman realty hated All this demagogic stuff but subordinated his finer sensibilities to the Noble cause of winning. The press seemed to find this defense unassailable. Who cares about integrity when its a matter of winning or losing democratic congressmen became accessories after the fact. They were so eager to paper Over the deficit debacle that they cheerfully gave Bush political cover a not that he needed it a on his High profile reversal. Not a hint of gloating. After All its their government they figure and they have to keep it running. In the oddly clubby atmosphere of today a Washington they re not just members of a coalition government they re co conspirators. That a peachy for presidents and congressional icons but does no to do much for the rest of us. The result is profound cynicism a Public attitude that is deeper and More hopeless than at anytime i can remember we be always joked about lying politicians but now we see the system itself As so corrupted its incapable of responding either to the National welfare or Public will. Not the Way democracy a supposed to work of course. Explains in part Why most of us done to bother to vote. Worth remembering too when we want to con Atlate ourselves on winning the cold a. Our systems not As catastrophic As the soviets but its a far cry from what Thomas Jefferson amp co. Had in mind $ z live c15ew that first Independence Day. C Cox news service supreme court has maimed the 2-party system what is it with this supreme court. On the very Day that the House of representatives was struggling with the mess left behind by the Flag burning Case their honors in another 5-4 decision said in effect that political patronage is unconstitutional. The patronage decision will not anger nearly As Many people As the Flag bum ing Case but its damage to the country will be greater. In both instances the court s narrow majority has taken the precious idea of first amendment rights and extended it to extremes that not Only defy logic but contradict decades of american experience. Patronage a the practice of rewarding political supporters by giving them preference in government jobs a goes Back to the very beginning of the Republic. For almost two centuries it provided most of the Energy and muscle for our two party system. The dangers Are Clear when Hacks fill responsible positions and competent Public servants Are subjected to political pressure. To protect against abuse while preserving what was useful reformers More than a Century ago began to pass civil service Law s for the Federal bureaucracy and for Many state and local it was not until 1976 that the supreme court a or rather five justices a intruded into the picture by asserting that All political firings Are inherently unconstitutional. The other Day Justice William j. Brennan jr., who wrote that 1976 opinion led another narrow majority to the conclusion that All other government personnel decisions a hiring promotions and transfers a must be made without regard to party affiliation or political history of the individual. There is a narrow exception for a policy making positions Quot but it is Clear that the intent a and effect a of the decision is to end the patronage system maybe i am upset because both the 1976 decision and the recent one involved my Home state of Illinois. The first attacked political firing by democrats in Cook county the second political hiring by republicans in Springfield. The location is relevant because Cook county and Illinois have some of the most flourishing and competitive politics in the nation. What is so grating in the Brennan Campos decisions is the obliviousness to the political costs of this judicial intrusion. Indeed in the 1976 opinion Brennan asserted a it is not Only individual belief and association which Are restricted where political patronage is the practice. A the free functioning of the political process also on that last Point he is Flat out wrong As retired Justice Lewis f. Powell or. Pointed out in his 1976 dissent and Justice Antonin Scalia argued even More powerfully in dissenting from the recent decision Scalia understands that the parties Are at the Center of our political system and deserve at least As much consideration As say those Republican appointees the Brennan majority saved from firing when the democrats took Over the Cook county sheriffs office. Listen to Scalia a it is self evident that eliminating patronage will significantly undermine party discipline and that As party discipline wanes so will the. Strength of the two party system. But says the court a political parties have already survived the substantial decline in patronage employment practices in this this is almost verbatim what was said in Elrod the 1976 Case. Fourteen years later it seems much less the Justice continues a indeed now that we have witnessed in 18 of the last 22 years an executive Branch of the Federal government under control of one party while the Congress is entirely or partially in control of the other Patty now that we have undergone the most recent Federal election in which 98 percent of the House incumbents of whatever party were returned to office and now that we have seen elected officials changing their political affiliation with unprecedented readiness the statement that a political parties have already survived has a positively whist Hng in the Date character to it. A parties have assuredly survived a but As what As the forges upon which Many of the essential compromises of american political life Are hammered out or merely As convenient vehicles for the conducting of National presidential elections a the court majority almost wilfully ignores two fundamental political realities. Parties Are the Only mass mobilization device this nation has developed to energize our democracy. The decline of parties is directly related to the decl i be of vote r Tumo it. Mobilization takes manpower and some of that manpower in states like Illinois has been supplied by patronage workers. Removing this resource will make candidates even More dependent on mass Media mobilization techniques which Means Money. And As Scalia pointed out a Reliance on Money intensive Campaign techniques tends to entrench those in Power much More effectively than patronage. Today a political action committee managers have shown themselves far less willing to Gamble on the outs getting in than the Job seeking precinct workers of the past. The court has fired at the wrong target and has wounded the political system. Cwashington Posl a Lars group the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
