Published: July 17, 2008 06:11 pm            

CHRISTY: The Age of Hypocrisy

This week I read “Mornings on Horseback,” the biography of Teddy Roosevelt’s early years written by America’s premier biographer David McCullough. If you love America, and have an interest in government and history, there may be no finer writer alive today. His zest for knowledge and truth about his subject is inspiring.

And if you love history, you already know that it repeats itself.

While I read about events in 1877, I was struck by nearly identical situations appearing then that are appearing now. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected as the 19th president, but not before the election was disputed right up to a few days before inauguration day, which at that time took place on March 4. The election was eventually decided by one electoral vote. Not everyone believed that the election was fair and perhaps the outcome should be challenged.

Hayes set his agenda to reform the party political system, calling it the most dangerous threat to the country. America had slid to a system — largely because of President Grant — which held to a party-above-principle mentality. No longer did individuals and ideas carry the day, but politicians urged their colleagues to play the team concept. Even if you don’t think something is a good policy matter, vote for it anyway, there will be something in it for you down the line.

While that is the nature of politics in general, followed long enough it becomes a drug you cannot escape. And in 1877, it was a policy that was ruining the country.

This system should sound awfully familiar. Today, on a national scale, the federal government has virtually no transportation policy and instead relies on the earmark system — the process by which individual legislators put money in the budget for individual pet projects. It should strike us all as amazing that road and bridge construction or maintenance should be considered a pet project of anyone.

On the state level, New York has virtually no policy for funding local interest projects and relies instead on the dreaded member item policy — giving huge chunks of taxpayer money to each state legislator and letting them shower it upon the lucky — or subservient — organization. And of course, the more you go along with the “team,” the more money you get to distribute. The argument is that only local legislators know for certain what makes a good local project. But policy, like ethics, shouldn’t be practiced with a rubber band mentality; stretching every which way so long as you get the fit you want.

We’re great at labeling things. In 1877, it was the Victorian Age, we proceeded into the Industrial Age, the Gilded Age and so on and so forth. I’m ready to label today as the Hypocrisy Age. A time when people are willing to say anything, regardless of the truth. Simply say whatever it is that you’d like that fits the moment. It would make a great Simpson’s TV cartoon episode on the Fox Network if it weren’t so close to the truth.

Hypocrisy comes at you from strange angles and it can be difficult to identify unless you pay attention. Who could have possibly thought that Eliot Spitzer — who looked like the kid in school who never had a girlfriend and backed that up by railing against corruption — was in fact corrupt. He prosecuted and put prostitutes in jail; not just as a policy move, but with the zeal of a Southern preacher denouncing Satan himself.

This week we’ve learned that the Republican Senate Majority Leader in New York, who is under FBI scrutiny for using state taxpayer money to run a business out of his basement, will take home $1.7 million in excess campaign money when he quits office this week. Can anyone else imagine announcing on Monday that you will quit your job on Friday and take nearly two million dollars with you.

But Joe Bruno sounds so distant. Maybe that’s not so much money all the way down the Thruway in Albany. Well, a few short years ago Buffalo Mayor Tony Masiello quit his job as Mayor and walked away with $1 million in excess campaign money also. Factoring an upstate mayor compared to the most powerful Republican in the state, I’d imagine Bruno should be embarrassed at having so little money left over.

Doesn’t this sound like a reality television show where they follow someone who won the lottery. They hit a huge payday and quit their job. Give the whole world the middle finger and buy a Winnebago and cement lions for the driveway entrance?

Being elected to serve the people shouldn’t end as a lottery-like stunt — and elected to serve shouldn’t require you to say whatever it takes to stay in office.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com

        

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