The issue of power and personality is raised by a lengthy New York Times profile of Robert Caro whose search for an answer as to how political power is accumulated and employed has led him into a multi-decade, multiple volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. To begin with, Caro wasn't that interested in Johnson. But the more his meticulous research revealed extremely complex facets of Johnson's life and behavior, the deeper Caro had to penetrate to try to answer the question of whether those facets were required to obtain the power itself.
A shorter way of asking the question is: Do you have to be a mean, unscrupulous, calculating S.O.B. to achieve and manipulate political power effectively. The usual answer to this perennial question is: No, but it helps.
As a former political practitioner, and an ultimately unsuccessful one at that, my answer would be: I hope not. Political scientists usually array various approaches to political power along a spectrum of idealism and pragmatism. So, it helps to have high ideals for using power but to be prepared to be "practical" in achieving those ideals. Practical in this context usually is codeword for everything from deceit to threat. But that formulation raises the equally complex question: At what point does the unprincipled use of political power betray the ideals that originally motivated the achievement of that power.
These questions are not about the usual deal-making and log-rolling, usually called compromise, necessary to make a mass democracy based on checks and balances work. I took part in it long enough to know how it works and how it should work. This discussion is about the point where achieving and applying political power involves behavior that betrays the system.
Such questions of ethics and morality are as close as the practice of politics ever comes to theology (something I also have some experience with). And it is probably that experience that causes these questions to be awakened yet again at this stage of a long life. Many Americans adopt the Churchillian adage that if you like sausages or laws you should never watch either one being made, a clever way of saying it is necessarily a messy process.
But isn't that true also of operating a Wall Street investment bank, running a university, or even administering a highly successful website? How far are we prepared to go in treachery to achieve what we at least believe to be noble ends? Unlike the examples just given, however, politics involves the public trust and national welfare. In my mind this means that the use of political power should respond to a higher, not lower, scale of integrity.
It is not necessary to lie, cheat, and steal to achieve great goals. In fact, in a democratic republic such as ours the opposite is true. Openness, a simpler word for transparency, is required to educate, involve, and ultimate enlist public support for public goods. If a majority of Americans don't want to know what goes on behind the corridors of power, it is because they assume, or are constantly told by cynical media chatterers, that it is a corrupt system being used against them.
Could civil rights legislation have been passed in the 1960s without massive manipulation of the political system in the Johnsonian manner, or was Franklin Roosevelt required to use complex behind-the-scenes maneuvering to get the U.S. into World War II? We will never know. Were we justified in using very undemocratic and unprincipled methods during the Cold War? And does that level of unscrupulousness continue in waterboarding and unlimited detention without due process of law? Each of us who cares about our country must answer this for ourselves.
But at the very least we all should be aware of the price a democracy pays for achieving its goals using these means and always be prepared to understand the corrosive affects on public trust when the truth comes out.
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You have to be willing to lie, smile and knife someone simultaneously.
no sausages, no laws
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Unfortunately, it has become an article of faith in America that winning is the only thing that matters. How you win is less and less relevant as time goes on, especially if you keep winning. You're only a "cheater" when you get caught, and even then, only when you don't manage to steer the narrative your way. We can also notice that cheaters pay a lower and lower price. Things that used to destroy careers are now quickly-forgotten events.
In the '90's. in the '00's and again in the '10's?
Yup sure did. Under Democrats and under Republican administration with or without Democratic or Republican Congressional majorities.
More and more is being hidden from us, and more people were prosecuted for trying to reveal the truth under this administration than any before.
It's time to stop listening to Dempublican BS and start taking political action in our own interests. The game, as currently run, is rigged for the benefit of others. We own the game.
Personal opinion.
Legislators are first and foremost........people.
As such they enjoy all the pluses and minuses that being human entails.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority"
One has to do no more than memorize that statement to understand our legislative branch, and why our government no longer works.
WE pay our congresspeople about $174,000 a year.
Lobbyists spent over 6.5 MILLION dollars last year alone, on each and every single member of Congress to influence their votes.
The rich are getting richer for a reason.
Congress works for them, not us.
It really is that simple.
Without campaign finance reform, and a clear and concerted effort to get the "special interest" money out of politics, America will continue to decline.
The two "most ethical" countries in the world (according to transparency international) are New Zealand, and Denmark.
THEY have publicly financed elections, and eliminate outside influence.
Is it REALLY that hard to "connect the dots"?
This is extremely misleading.
First of all, 2/3rds of the money for campaigns come from individuals - you and me. Is that corruption?
Second, not all that money is from "lobbyists." Lots comes simply from groups that, like individuals, simply believe in something or have an interest and want to make sure people who support that have help getting elected. You can't assume that a legislator just changes his mind based on who gives him the most money - that's contradicted by the evidence, and absurd on its face.
Lobbyists spent 3.51 Billion dollars to influence members of Congress in 2010.
Divide that by 535 members of congress, and that works out to $6,560,747 PER member of Congress, just in lobbying.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/
Campaign money comes from you and me?
Donations to campaign funds have yet to exceed 1 Billion dollars (this MAY be the year that happens)
Less than 1/5 of 1% (0.16% to be precise) of Americans donate over $200 to political campaigns. ($200 is the lowest amount that has to be declared, so is the lowest amount traceable).
The vast MAJORITY of THAT money is made up of big donors.333 million from those donating over $10,000. $312 Million from those donating between $2,500, and $10,000.
http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/donordemographics.php
Do you honestly believe that my $100.00 donation buys me the same amount of access to my congressman, as the guy who donates $10,000? $100,000? A million?
Why are there laws limiting the amount of money an individual can contribute to a campaign, yet Sheldon Adelson can donate over 5 million dollars to a PAC?
http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/top-donors-2012-election-romney-obama-gingrich
It's our SYSTEM of financing elections that's absurd, not me. It amounts to nothing less than state sanctioned legalized bribery.
When bribery is the means used to finance our elections, how can our government be anything OTHER than corrupt?
why?
why is every other country able to conduct elections for a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time we take here? i don't know of any other country where a newly elected official immediately begins collecting a "war chest" for the next election cycle - to the point that our HOR are literally in perpetual campaign mode
enough with the "american exceptionalism" mindset. it's time for this country to grow up and insist our leaders behave in a more responsible manner
corporations are NOT people, my friend