Politics in the Astrodome

“The real danger of Obama’s technocratic administration lies in its habit of tendentiously recasting serious moral and political debates as misguided arguments about plainly observable empirical facts. Such intellectual self-indulgence preemptively labels all disagreement as uninformed or nefarious and renders democratic process — and all those that demand it — tiresome and frustrating.”

Ivan Kenneally, National Review Online August 12,2009


I normally leave commenting on politics to other hands. There are so many knuckle dragging, mouth breathers out there already expressing my political opinion that I feel little need to actually pitch in. Moreover, there are very few areas of the political arena where I feel uniquely qualified to comment. I am more of a spectator.

Politics is, thankfully, a spectator sport in the United States. Like most sports, it’s dominated by professionals. At the top rung are the actual elected leaders, who are aligned in local, regional and national leagues. The vast middle of the process are made up of the unelected: toadies, aids, spokesmodels, publicity agents, reporters, commentators and the like—professionals all. Below this, at the semi-pro level, are what I like to call the Mobile Masses.

There’s the masses and there’s the Mobile Masses. The masses are you and me, people who opt into the political process when it’s voting time or when our oxen are being gored. We don’t make policy. We don’t generally care about policy unless its hob nailed, goose stepping boot is about to descend upon our rutabagas. This is a luxury of a mature democracy and something we should all thank Providence for. We don’t need to be policy wonks. We got people for that. At least at the top level, these people answer to us.

At our discretion, we can join the Mobile Masses. These are your bloggers*, people at town meetings, protesters and writers of letters/emails. But we are not ever the core of the Mobile Masses. For the most part, the Mobile Masses are adjuncts of the second tier of our professional political class. There’s nothing really wrong with this and it’s been this way for years. Being part of the core Mobile Masses doesn’t pay all that well, is sometimes an add on duty to a regular paying job and always sucks up a hell of a lot of free time.

You can call them Astroturf, if you will, but that is a denial that we have a political process dominated by professionals and are thus all playing in the Astrodome. On the left we have the mighty Teacher’s Union, the AARP, other unions, community groups and other OVERTLY ORGANIZED factions. You have your dabblers and your dilettantes here, but most of these folks have a schedule of causes that they are compelled—professionally—to show up for. Again, nothing wrong with this. On the right we have VERY WELL FUNDED mercenary THINK TANKS (read: repositories of toadies in training, all of whom are drawn from the class of dilettante), evangelical church groups, hardcore adherents of Catholicism (clustered with Eastern Orthodox, Muslims, and non-literal mainstreamers such as Methodists and Lutherans), gun loonies, home schoolers, small business people and a rainbow plethora of assorted Luddites. There are a lot less of these folks and they are not as professional. Only the Think Tanks and the evangelicals have enough critical mass to lead the group. As with the left, parts of the group are going to show for everything. What parts of the group show is going to skew based on the issue, since the group is disparate and not as well organized.

When it comes to the healthcare debate, the evangelicals and Catholic aligned have sensibly headed for the sidelines. It’s not their issue, anymore than it is anyone else’s. They have no core consensus other than ‘obviously the system is messed up.’ Even fictioning up the concept of taxpayer funded abortions isn’t enough to put their asses in the seats. (Both groups have also been wounded by other problems.) Without these two groups, the right’s Mobile Masses starts to look downright FUGLY. Sans the church ladies these people really stand out—and not in a positive way.

The current opposition to Obamacare is being led by Think Tanks and small business people. And I don’t see anything wrong or sinister or invalid about this. As for the people that they have mobilized, they can only lead those who want to follow. Yes, they are a pack of too much time on their hands weirdoes, but they are no more ‘Astroturf’ than are the Acorn or Public Servant Union thugs the left can materialize at the snap of a finger. If anything, the Mobile Masses showing for the Think Tanks are much more Semi and much less Pro than the usual leftist mob—perhaps more representative of the general populace than the common crowd.

That said, they seem to represent the portion of the general populace that isn’t living in the real world. The problem is being phrased as “Do you want to trust the Government with Healthcare, which accounts for 18% of our national Gross Domestic Product?” when the real issue is that Healthcare costs are 18% of our economy and rising with no ceiling in sight. Sometimes the stupid technocrats are right. The system is obviously broken. Pretending that there should be a debate about a need for change is a strategic and idiotic error: hence the sudden manifestation of morons as activists.

*Hil-Gle.com is not a paid blogger. Although we are proudly Luddite.