"The System"

Is it even worth recommending E.J. Dionne columns? People should be reading him anyway. But if you're not already a regular follower, read this one on "political hypochondriacs" who like to blame "the system" when legislation they want doesn't pass:

It's all nonsense, but it is not harmless nonsense. The tendency to blame the system is a convenient way of leaving no one accountable. Those who offer this argument can sound sage without having to grapple with the specifics of any piece of legislation. There is the unspoken assumption that wisdom always lies in the political middle, no matter how unsavory the recipe served up by a given group of self-proclaimed centrists might be.

Indeed. It's just too bad that convention prevents Dionne from specifically calling out his colleague Dan Balz, whose commentary on the immigration is the perfect illustration of the dynamic he's complaining about.

Comments

And he advocates for eliminating the Senate! *swoon*

Posted by Dan Miller | June 12, 2007 12:09 PM

Convention prevents him from calling out his colleague? Isn't that "the system" for journalists?

Posted by Anonymous | June 12, 2007 12:20 PM

"There is the unspoken assumption that wisdom always lies in the political middle"

This is such a destructive idea. Unfortunately it is also firmly entrenched in Washington thanks to decades of Broder/Klein style punditry.

If the neocons want to nuke Iran and lefties want to engage in diplomacy then airstrikes seem like the sensible centrist thing to do.

And of course this kind of thinking makes Joe Lieberman "serious" about national security.

Posted by DonB | June 12, 2007 12:42 PM

Well, in fairness, Matt, you yourself have often written about the obstacles which 'the system' erects in the path of legislation -- veto points in the legislative process etc. Though I guess that's not quite what Balz et al mean by 'the system' -- they mean the habits of partisanship rather than hard-wired governmental/constitutional structures.

Posted by Ryan | June 12, 2007 1:08 PM

Actually the "blame the system" talking point has been used recently to even more harm than even Dionne indicates. The neo-cons, many of whom are essentially not-so-ex commies, have been peddling one or other of "the system's broke" line for some time now.

At the very least, this feeds into an apathy about politics that allows some very dangerous folks to slip into office (that's the point, ain't it?) and also causes people to be disenchanted un-necessarily with liberals (that's the other point, ain't it?) who would use "the system" to actually improve the lot of many people. At worst, it's anti-American ("what's wrong with our country is that damned democratically elected constitutional gummint we have") even as it poses as patriotism.

Anyway, I'm with y'all in terms of the "split the difference" mentality of too many people nowadays ...

*

Relatedly, I've been concerned that the Dems. have managed to get into a politically loose/loose situation with this immigration bill (and that it may even be partially a trap) -- if the bill doesn't pass, it's 'cause Reid didn't allow the GOoPers to ammend it (and if Reid did allow debate on ammendments, he would have been denigrated as not being able to keep the Senate moving), while if the bill does pass and work out, Bush'll get the credit and if it doesn't work out, it'll be blamed on Reid -- however, on this issue, it seems the media hasn't been carrying the water for BushCO like they have in the past ... so maybe the Dems. aren't gonna get hurt by this sprung trap. Hmmm ... has a point been turn in our political discourse when the GOP can't even spring a trap on the Dems. anymore?

I hope so ... now if we can only get the Dems. to wise up about their strategies and messages (what's with the effete, Yurpean "no confidence" vote? if they wanna get rid of Gonzo, which sounds good to me, the House needs to impeach the jerk) and not listen to the concern trolls of the punditocracy so much, in which they can loose the battle with Iraq war funding even when they should have had the upper hand ...

Posted by DAS | June 12, 2007 1:41 PM

Dan Froomkin, in commenting on Dionne's column in his column today (also WaPo), had no problem with calling out both Balz and David Broder. Yay Dan!

Posted by beckya57 | June 12, 2007 6:52 PM

I read the WaPo daily and I knew Dionne was calling out Hiatt, Balz and Broder, and they knew it as well. Probably a chill breeze walking by those cubicles today.

Posted by Rick Kane | June 13, 2007 5:58 PM