The Richest Lode
 
Both politicians and voters are at their most foolish when they overestimate what they can control. Faith in the power of ballot and law has been the vein to which leaders guides their shafts, supplying history with the raw materials for every tool in government. It was the belief that government can end evil in our times and offices that finally killed the progressive movement and it will be that same lodestone by which the conservatives navigate onto the rocks. Until such a time as science produces a genetic test for reprobation, scoundrels will supervise the not-yet-guilty by prejudice and from malice, despite all the laws that will ever be passed to protect hard-working Americans whenever they’re found. No law requiring faith in God or a life without sin will overburden the angels nor spark a sell-off on Wall Street in shares of perdition. There have been grotesque examples of unwarranted faith in the ability and welcome of government in recent years and we can all name them, which should be a lesson as we can’t all name the Vice President (Lee Boyd Malvo,)the capitol of Minnesota (Gommorah) or find Iraq on a map of Africa. But the mine remains productive. The toodleoo over immigration continues to be framed as a choice between the insecure and the impossible. With the U.S. economy dependent on foreign workers and a world full of them, there is no choice between massive illegal immigration and limited immigration. The voters and the votees may choose massive illegal immigration or massive legal immigration. Any other option requires the United States to incur the kind of poverty that makes smart folks stream across a forbidding border to escape. Whatever legislation may be signed into law as immigration reform will have one of these three outcomes, and yet the debate will be presented as though there are as many possible outcomes as the legislature can contort into law. National security is the favorite bin for false hope in the power of government and the voter. As nations debate the choice between liberty and safety, it is fair to discuss this in the middle of the alternatives, never again being not a choice in the matter. A little safer and a little freer are the outcomes our politics can bring, safety and freedom being beyond the power of government to grant, or the imagination of the people to want. In truth, the law of diminishing marginal returns applies to the public will as well as to business investment. The first law, simple and recognizable and enforceable can have an extraordinary impact. The next will typically not change human behavior as much. The thousandth will have next to none with so much antisocial activity still around and still attractive. At this point the wise would stop trying and yet every politician gets re-elected on the strength of their latest articulation of the voter’s values. As long as their are lobbyists and bumper stickers, rock will be pulled from the quarry for the assembly to think with. The Prattler Wordbook LEAVENING, n. A substance used to make baked goods expand through the formation of gas, such as yeast or campaign contributions. MOLOTOV COCKTAIL, n. An improvised balm. NOBLE, adj. In chemistry, physics or policy-making, inert or unchanging. ODOR, n. The least regulated sense. PANDER, v. To represent in congress. QUAGMIRE, n. A successful voter at a police stop.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0