Elections Have Consequences

Jonah Goldberg's latest column is, well, kinda good. Very good, in fact. He takes as target Arnold Schwarzenegger and, as background, Gray Davis. And while his ultimate point is to slap around us kooky Californians, he's actually right about doing so:

I was against the recall on the grounds that the people of California elected Gray Davis and therefore they deserved to be punished. Seriously. Democracy isn’t merely about “the people” getting what they want, it’s also about the people getting what they deserve. Mobs get what they want every time. Citizens make informed choices and then live with — and learn from — the consequences. Those lessons inform how we view not merely candidates but parties and philosophies. “We gave those guys their shot and they blew it, I won’t be voting for that crowd again,” is an indispensable reaction in democratic politics.
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I’m sympathetic to the substance of Schwarzenegger’s agenda. But the last thing California needs is more populism. What it needs are strong, competitive political parties, run by people who are held accountable for their actions, not overruled by special elections and referenda every time things go south.

That's true, though Goldberg conveniently forgets that the whole reason for the recount was the opportunistic motivations of California's skeeziest congressman, Darrell Issa. But nevertheless, we voted out Gray and ushered in Arnold, so the ultimate fault is ours.

So too have we sacrificed our political structure on the altar of feel-good populism. Our scores of ballot initiatives, a populist innovation that's now a plaything of rich groups with agendas, has resulted in a dysfunctional budget hijacked with guaranteed outlays to a variety of cookie and ice cream parties no one had the heart to vote against. Arnold, of course, was part of that problem long before he ran, contributing an idiotic initiative for afterschool programs and then governing in exactly the same way, with a stream of poorly designed ballot offerings.

But insofar as the game is letting your opponent's folly destroy him, Democrats have yet to learn it. Like obsessive-compulsives with a self-destructive tic, we can be counted on to cover for Republicans no matter how ill-conceived and doomed-to-fail their ideas are. We'll vote for the Iraq War, pitch in on the Bankruptcy Bill, offer a few "ayes" to CAFTA, and join the President in cutting taxes. Goldberg's right: elections do have consequences. For parties as much as people. And every time we pretend that being out of power doesn't mean being out of power, we ensure they won't pay for their vote, because bipartisan support is another way of saying "there's no one to blame".

DeLay hasn't taken away our keys to the washroom, but we were long ago locked out of the legislating chamber. And we should play as if we know it. Form a shadow cabinet and say what we'd do before showing up en masse to vote no when the Republicans ask for the opposite. Hell, if you really want to make a statement, boycott the chamber in front of a particularly egregious vote so the Republicans can stand there, alone, one after the other, affirming corporate commandments. And then, when the credit card companies raise rates and the judges tell you bankruptcy just ain't gonna fly, you'll know who to blame. Not us, you didn't vote for us and we didn't vote for that. We weren't even there,

Blame them.

Elections have consequences, but not when the losers stick their hands in the cookie jar along with everyone else. Tonight, CAFTA comes up for vote. The vote will happen between 12 and 2am, and god knows how far it'll be extended if the totals look bad for passage (Medicare's vote was held up three extra hours). The vote will happen that late because congressmen will be tired, easier to shoehorn, and newspapermen will be sleepy, less likely to write long stories. If a Democrat -- even one -- breaks ranks, it'll be a bipartisan victory for either the "ayes" or the "nays". But if they don't, if they hold firm, it'll be a Republican loss. Either the bill will fail or Southern and Midwestern challengers can hang Republican incumbents for undercutting the American worker yet again. Either way, the Republicans will lose.

Elections have consequences. Votes should have consequences. But they don't always. That, unlike everything else in the DeLay-controlled House, is up to the minority party. Tonight we'll see if they can keep their hands out of the cookie jar.