The Chris Moeller Archives

Servants of the people

If you deign to ratify such a corrupt enterprise as the American electoral system, and after that, believe that you have found the third party candidate and/or Democratic Socialist you wish to vote for on November 6th, please do me this one solid and remember going into the booth (or whatever) that this person works for you. They are not your "leader," definitely not your better. We know automatically that they are not royalty by heredity, but they are also not royalty by the decision of the people. They are your representative. Better still, they are your employee, and they should consider themselves at all times vulnerable to your demands and to your whims. You have only one thing they want and that is your vote so please do not give to them unless you feel they have earned it. You are sending a very muddled message to them, and to everyone, if you give them a ballot endorsement they have not earned. Whether you intended it as an affirmation or only as a protest against another candidate you like less, it will be interpreted as an affirmation. Your vote bestows power, and it removes it.

This idea of politicians being our leaders, rather than our servants, proves time and time again to be incredibly dangerous. The cult of personality and celebrity clouds logic, and heated rhetoric from them is targeted at mentally vulnerable people, today-- this week-- more than ever. Are our elected officials public servants? Whether or not they manage to act in the interest of the public good, they are. They get public servant health insurance and job benefits after all. The votes they cast are the votes you are also casting. The decisions they make are ones that you sanctioned. Their competence is important, but their honor more so, and their courage most of all.

Unfortunately, both the left and the right of American politics are afraid of government by the people. The masses terrify them. It's too messy. Even on the left, where values hold a national majority, "populism" is a dirty word, recently stolen by the other side. Instead, they wish to be led by the nose and left to other business. The right prefers a strongman, the left, a rock star persona. But that's a cheat in a democracy that can't be permitted. You are the vital cog. You are.

The great newspaper columnist Murray Kempton once attended a particular press conference staged by New York City Mayor Ed Koch. He could not abide Koch, once writing that the mayor "bullied the ill-fortuned and truckled to the fortuned." Arriving late at City Hall, Kempton sat in one of the chairs for reporters and it immediately collapsed beneath him. "Here comes Murray Kempton, breaking my furniture," Koch said to laughter. Rising to his feet, Kempton replied, "It's the people's furniture, Mr. Mayor."

posted by CM @ 7:14 PM