Byron York thinks so – Democrats are worried that if the GOP picks up the gavels in 2011, we’ll aggressively go after the Democrat Administration. In a certain sense, they are right – and it is one of the reasons some people prefer a divided government. Opponents watching each other tend to keep each other honest. I take a bit of a different view.
When Matt and I wrote Caucus of Corruption back in 2006, the time frame we were covering, for the most part, involved the time of GOP control of Congress (we dipped in to the more distant past in some areas, but mostly just to show how the pattern of corruption emerged early on in the current crop of Democrat leaders). In all that time, the GOP Congress never made any serious move to police the activities of individual Congressmen, Democrat or Republican. For all the talk of how the House GOP went after Clinton, the fact of the matter is that action was only taken after the Independent Counsel reported – committees out the wazoo and the Congressional GOP still waited until someone else took the lid off.
The plain fact of the matter is that there has been a too cozy relationship in the House and Senate. An unwillingness to cause offense. A shying away from the stern, republican virtues necessary to the proper functioning of a democratic government. I’d like it very much if the relevant committees of the House and Senate would rake over the coals everyone in government who has been suspected of malfeasance – but I doubt that I’ll get to see that.
You see, I’m not worried if some of my GOPers are raked over – I want them raked over. I want them so far gone that no one even remembers that they were once in the Party. Its ok if doing so causes the GOP to take a hit in the polls – the cleaner GOP which emerges will be better positioned to win public trust. But I also know that a full raking over it going to bring a couple score Democrats down – and that is in the least.
There is such much bribery, kickbacks, nepotism and other forms of corruption in government that a truly aggressive investigation would be a political explosion – and as all of this involves government, the part of government (ie, the Democrats) will be most exposed. But it is not for purely partisan advantage that I want this done – it is no less than the rescue of the two-party system I seek.
I like the two-party system. I like it, that is, when you have to parties so broadly based that wide variations exist in both parties, and towards the edges they tend to merge in view point. I don’t want a half dozen ideological parties where everyone has to be as politically pure as the wind-driven snow. The problem is, that corruption – unaddressed – is disgusting everyone with both major parties, and thus opening up the prospect of small, ideological parties. Get at the corruption and the two major parties will be restored to respectability – the people will start to trust them again.
American government is a complex monster. It can’t be worked by any one man, or any one party. The Founders ensured this – and even after half a century of the left trying to strip away Constitutional protections, they still haven’t been able to sweep away that bedrock of designed difficulty. But for this thing to work, the people in government have to be reasonably honest – not saints, because there are few such, but honest to the point where we, the people can rely upon a solid majority of them to actually be motivated by public spirit rather than personal greed or lust.
To get that, there will have to be the raw courage on the part of those in government to fearlessly go after political corruption. It is clear the Democrats, lost in a swamp of corruption, cannot lead this charge. Can the GOP? Time will tell – but it will take extreme pressure from the people to give it even a chance of happening.
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