Uneasy Rhetoric

Memo to candidates of all political persuasions: Don’t sign it!

There is an organization, which appears to have been afiliated directly or indirectly with the 1994 “Contract for America,” seeking to have political candidates sign binding performance contracts, called microtuitions. Their rationale, in a nutshell is:

Imagine, an America where politicians at all levels of government include in their campaigns for office a new social contract, a Microtution, that includes a handful of action items they choose to offer voters: All nicely wrapped around crystal clear language that says if they fail to do these few items they will not seek re-election in the next election cycle.

Of course I think politicians should be accountable to the voters; however, who is to decide what “accountability” means? The voters, of course. I may feel completely satisfied that my state representative has been “accountable” to me, has represented me as fully as possible, while my neighbor may think my state representative is a criminal.

We have elections precisely to retain or fire our elected officials (don’t get me started on recalls), based on our personal performance evaluation (or based on our personal political preference).

Just because a candidate has not accomplished something on his or her agenda doesn’t mean the candidate hasn’t been working hard. Spend some time one day with a freshman legislator in the minority party. See how hard it is for them to accomplish sweeping policy change. See how hard it is for them to accomplish any policy change.

How ludicrous is it to ask a state representative to pledge something like “I will lower taxes 12%” (an example from their faq) when the other 29, or 59, or however many legislators, may have a different idea? Elected newbies may go to their capitols thinking they’re going to be one-person shakeup teams, but don’t you think all of their colleagues are thinking the same thing? Spend a day in legislative chambers some time and tell me there aren’t dozens of dueling egos. Even executives, mayors, governors, presidents, have their corresponding legislative bodies to deal with.

The idea of a binding political contract, as spelled out above, threatens one of the key elements of our democratic system: an elected official must have the flexibility to change his or her mind when presented with new or different information. Without such an ability (whether it is actually exercised), our democracy cannot function as a democracy. At its most extreme a binding political contract would pre-ordain all legislative votes.

Maybe the microtuition folks don’t take it that far. At the very least, it is a knee-jerk, emotional, oversimplification of our complex, messy, and glorious representative democracy that ranks up there with the vile “no new taxes” pledge.

Remember, politicans are accountable. Do you talk to your representatives? Do you vote?