Picking up on yesterday’s comments, I notice that the “politics is exciting, policy is boring” theme is making its way ’round the old blogosphere.
Just this morning I was driving around town, and listened to a podcast of the McLaughlin Group. It’s the old shout-em-up version of a TV public affairs program that was around long before whatever goes on cable TV.
There was a time years ago when I used to watch the Group, on a regular basis. It wasn’t illuminating, but it was, admittedly, entertaining, as I would anticipate Pat Buchanan say something to provoke Eleanor Clift, and vice versa.
Then it got less interesting. Today, I have no idea when it shows on my local PBS station. But at least for a few weeks now, the audio podcast is enough of a diversion when I’m mowing the lawn or driving or somesuch.
Now the proprietor of ShotInTheDark picks up the theme of politics, policy, and blogging.
“Policy is boring (unless John LaPlante is writing about it); but politics is connected to the pocketbook and the future of this nation; it’s something people get emotionally involved with.”
Actually, policy can be exciting … if you consider the implications it has. Pocketbook? Yep, that’s one. The 401k revolution, for example, is an afterthought of tax policy from the 1970s (I’m actually not sure of the decade). It has had significant implications for the financial health of Americans.
But the choice of policy has also implications for the human spirit, for personal choice and mobility. To pick one example, consider retirement planning.
Under an old pension system, you’re tied with golden handcuffs to an employer for life. With the “portability policy” of 401ks, you’re much freer to seek other employment, which can have any number of beneficial results on family health, physical health, and many other indicators of personal well-being.
In its best form, policy builds on the dignity of the human being. In its worst, public policy attacks it. Politicians, to be sure, enact policy. But so do bureaucrats, and both are, like the “madmen” that J.M. Keynes alluded to years ago, influenced by … ideas about policy.
That’s why I say that politics is in some ways “cheering for laundry.”