Elections Don't Matter, Institutions Do

RealClearWorld - Elections Don't Matter, Institutions Do

There is much to be said for Mr. Kaplan's thesis here.

Elections don't matter as much as institutions do when it comes to stability and progress, but one has to remember that it takes individuals who are willing to invest in those institutions for it to work as well.

You can have the framework of institutions, just as one has the framework of the democratic process and still you will find yourself awash in the problems of societies torn by religious, ethnic and tribal factionalism. However, if individuals within those societies are committed to seeing the institutions work, then it tends to be able to overcome those divides. It is why the US works as well as it does.

Americans by an large, at the moment, are deeply invested in the notion that we are a nation of laws and that there are institutions that can effectively administer those laws and rules that govern any society. Unfortunately, from my perspective, we are seeing assaults on those institutions in ways that will tear apart the nation, and unfortunately, those assaults are being mounted by our opinion leaders and elected leaders which makes it even worse.

We have come to very near a tipping point, in my estimation, where those in charge of protecting the institutions are so busy tearing them down by selectively enforcing them that they will collapse. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day ... or even year, but sooner than necessary or even desired.

Whether it is saying that selectively applying tax breaks to political fellow travelers is OK, or saying that race needs to be considered when enforcing school discipline, or this group or that group will be exempted from the law for this year or next, all of them are wrong.

The point Mr. Kaplan was making was that if there is not equality before the law - or in the waiting line of the institutions - then the whole system is going to break down.

We are so fortunate in the United States (and Canada, I think, so basically two-thirds of North America) that our institutions have developed and work as well as they do that we essentially take them for granted and assume that it is the natural order of things. Actually, it is not the natural order of things and the miracle of what is our society and culture (so far) is that it does work so seamlessly that we can take it all for granted.

Unfortunately, again from my perspective, we have those in our leadership who want to pit ourselves against ourselves; to set class against class, group against group, community against community. The endgame of this strategy to me is so obvious, it becomes almost a tragedy in slow-motion.

As the old song goes:
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of Heaven,
You can justify it in the end.


We are seeing the politics of division and we will pay the price. We have come to see our "government" as the source of all solutions and the great equalizer to make up for our individual differences. We want it to level the outcomes, regardless of reality.

Life is not a zero sum game, unfortunately not enough people can't see that. No, we have to blame someone else for our faults and shortcomings. We are never to blame.

Well, folks, it appears that we have chosen the path we want to take by the people we have elected to act in our name. We will have to accept the consequences of our choices. Individually, we may not have made these choices, but collectively we have. Those of us who oppose these choices that are made in our name have to accept that. I know this does not seem fair, or even right, to many, but life is not fair ... nor is it always right in our eyes.

I am religious enough to ask God for forgiveness, for we know not what we do. Maybe we will learn, but it will be a painfully slow process that will see setbacks.

You may not see it that way, and that is your choice, but I fear it is the way it is.