An Analogy

If you're still having trouble picturing the political landscape, here's an analogy that may make it easier to follow.

Imagine a wagon full of apples rolling downhill on a bumpy road. You're supposed to be the one driving the wagon, but your friends want to drive too. Some of them pull the wheel one way, some pull the other way. They're so busy fighting with each other, they don't watch the road ahead. You can pull the wheel one way or the other, but you have to pull for a while to overcome your friends. Did I mention the road was bumpy? And there are ditches on either side? And no brakes?

Wait, it gets worse. A bandit stowed away on your wagon. He's furiously throwing your cargo of apples off the wagon. He's also promised a share of the apples to some of your friends, but you don't know which ones. The bandit could care less if your wagon crashes.

That's a pretty desperate situation, but unfortunately, that's where our democratic process is.

Obviously our country is the wagon. You are the independent voter who tries to keep our country on the right track by voting for the right people. In the real world, different groups want to use the government for their own ends, so they tug and strain and curse to turn it their way. Ideally, in our republic, the government turns right, and the voters correct the imbalance by turning left; a few years later the reverse occurs; in the long run we avoid trouble by not going too far in either direction. That doesn't happen any more.

For one thing, the mass media and the parties have done their best to alienate the electorate. Typically, 40 to 50 percent of potential voters don't bother. They're not represented in the analogy, except in the inertia of the wagon.

Most of the actual voters have made up their minds before they vote. About 40% vote Democratic no matter what, another 40% Republican. The numbers may be even higher these days. These partisans are the "friends" in the analogy who pull the wheel left or right without understanding the consequences.

That leaves 20% (or even less) to decide the election. Many of them vote based on their personal economic situation, which should keep the country in the center, just by the law of averages.

The bandit represents the wealthy in this country. They're robbing the rest of us blind, and as long as they can keep up the stealing, they don't care if the economy goes into a ditch. Their latest target is Social Security. You've been paying into it your whole working life, but if they get it privatized, Wall Street will have a trillion-dollar lunch off of your money. Do you want to get to the bottom of the hill and find out your cargo is gone? Then keep voting Republican.

Our wagon has been veering to the right for some time, and we've already got two wheels off the road and almost into a ditch. The voters pulled the wheel left, just enough to keep the wheels out of the ditch. The danger is not over, but the wagon is still veering to the right. It's just a matter of time before we run off the road. Another good bump like 9/11 could take the choice out of your hands.

What ya gonna do? You don't want the wagon to run off the right side of the road. You don't want to overcorrect and run off the left side, either. The first job is to center the wagon, by keeping the Republicans from getting more control. It's not just about putting people in Congress, you see, it's about the judges they appoint, the projects they fund or don't fund, the laws they pass or don't pass. Fixing the Great Recession will take more than two years.

After the election, the next step is campaign financing. The Citizens United case was the equivalent of giving megaphones to each of the wheel pullers and putting a blindfold on you; it will be impossible to make rational decisions about the future of our country when you can't hear yourself think and can't see the road ahead.

We have to save our country before it's too late. Democracy may not work very well, it may seem like the worst system on earth, but as Churchill pointed out, all the others are worse.