A Sop to Irresponsibility

by shep

In attempting to advance the peculiar argument that, because people may become defensive about bad past decisions, public accountability undermines good decision-making, Shankar Vedantum writes: “…Democratic candidates get pulled to the left during the nominating process, and their sense of accountability to liberals makes it harder for them to be president to all Americans when elected.”

While it may indeed be harder for Democratic nominees to be elected in the political environment framed by such patently partisan conventional wisdom, a sense of accountability to liberals would not make it harder for a Democrat to be president to all Americans.

Opinion polls consistently show that most Americans want the sort of effective government and public policies preferred by liberal Democrats, such as regulation that protects the environment, health, safety and well-functioning markets. They also want foreign policy that emphasizes diplomacy and international cooperation, rather than war. And, even if they would prefer not to pay more in taxes, most Americans want government to pay for itself – rather than passing our debt to future generations.

Meanwhile, as Vedantum suggests, the current lineup of Republican nominees are forced by their base to advocate war policy and social policies that are unpopular with the majority of voters (on abortion, policies that erode the privacy and freedom of half of all voters). The idea of being president to all Americans, is a ridiculous proposition in and of itself in our radically polarized electorate. Since we have to choose, I say that the minority of people who are rabidly opposed to the liberty rights of women and gays, and who support aggressive, bloody war, simply don’t deserve a president who represents them. At least, the rest of us don’t deserve such a president.

In any event, accountability for the public campaign commitments upon which the parties nominate their candidates is a decidedly good thing for all Americans, particularly so for Democratic politicians. Building a highly strained rationale for why such public accountability can be a bad thing, sounds suspiciously like a desperate attempt to defend widely rejected and discredited Republican ideology.