I thought the Summer term was going too fast. It's easy to get caught up in the weather, the social life and everything that Dartmouth has to offer. Now that the end draws near, I'm slightly panicked and counting my hours of sleep on one finger. Reality hits you quickly. I realized though, while reading my daily dose of The New York Times and The Dartmouth, that things had moved pretty fast both inside and outside of the Dartbubble. These are two worlds, strikingly similar. It seems we've all had our love affair and waning excitement with 09X.
Can you believe that Barack Obama was inaugurated about seven months ago? If you were here in November, recall the rally and celebratory walk through campus that took place upon his historic election. There was hope and a sense of change in the air, thick enough that you could cut it with a knife. Months later, neither the national conversation nor Obama's political ambitions are dead, but circumstances have changed. Approval ratings are down. Our honeymoon with Obama seems to be coming to a close, and for all of his passion and ambition, he seems to be treading the political waters. Is it really his fault, or is there something inherently broken in our nation's civic character?
Americans on average barely score a 50 percent on basic civic literacy tests, according to the American Civic Literacy Program. We continually invite disaster as long as our nation at large is unaware of the fundamentals of our nation's history and government. Ignorance in our populace may be a sad but inevitable reality. Destructive leadership does not have to be, though it has been a long-running trend. I would not be the first to lambast "special interests" and their corrosive hold on our government's levers of power.
It only takes a quick glance at Obama's Cap and Trade legislation to see their handiwork. It began as a bill with some teeth to reduce emissions (noble or ignoble, depending on your political persuasion). It has since become a Trojan horse for blatant protectionism, business handouts and emissions regulation so full of loopholes that it might as well not exist. In fact, in its current state, we should hope that it doesn't make it out of the Senate. It would be historic legislation of the infamous kind.
It pains me to say it, but it seems that on some fundamental level our democracy is broken in its current state. The incentives behind our government's spending are misaligned. Consider the U.S. Postal Service, which is currently running a deficit of more than $6.5 billion. In an effort to balance its budget, it looked immediately to central Idaho, where mail service is provided to 20 rural ranch addresses in the heart of the rugged, roadless Rocky Mountains, serviceable only by plane. Forty-six thousand dollars are spent every year to provide the mail delivery. When the word came that the Postal Service was considering a cut to the route, the residents of northern Idaho erupted. People showed up to Capitol Hill wearing rafting sandals and cowboy boots. Bowing to political pressure from everyone including Idaho's congressional delegation, the Postal Service maintains the mail route. We'll not only build bridges to nowhere, we'll fly planes there as well!
There is an obvious disconnect between our citizenry and our government. Congressional disapproval ratings of more than 60 percent are a symptom of deeper problems. We pay into a Byzantine tax system where we're supposedly equal stakeholders in the government we finance. Does this ethic break down when 1 percent of Americans pay 40 percent of our income taxes? We have limitless demand and appetite for government spending and programs, yet we make no direct connection between that spending and our taxes. It is our civic duty to do so. Our tax dollars could be subsidizing sugar farmers in Florida or they could be covering a child's health insurance. Prevailing political attitudes do not distinguish between the two; instead, a senator in Florida gets his subsidy as long as an Iowan does too. Oh, and don't forget the Montana Sheep Institute for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.! Somebody wins, and everybody loses.
So here we have it, Obama's 09X. It's not all magic, and it's not all bad. Before any real change can happen, we have to fix the fundamentals. As long as our legislatures are hostage to well-financed lobbyists, and the citizenry is uninformed and unable to reconcile the role of government with their responsibilities, even the greatest presidential mandates will fall flat. It is our responsibility to make this "09X" the best term ever, for everyone's sake.
