*The Ruling Class

It was always my belief that the American system of government, a representative democracy, was designed so that are elected officials were elected to govern. As part of that system, certain people would be appointed by those elected to serve those who appoint them and thus ultimately serve the American people. But always the purpose of government in this country was to serve the interest of the country.

It is only natural that since the beginning there have been those that through merit, cronyism, party or personal loyalty and even corruption have maintained a place in government for long periods of time. Their have even been family political dynasties, The Adam's, The Roosevelt's, The Kennedy's, The Bush's and many more particularly on the state and local levels.

However a new phenomena is developing in our political system, a very unhealthy one, which I call "The Ruling Class".

As I said we have always had corruption, cronyism and without a doubt we have had partisanism, but this new development, this Ruling Class , is another animal all together. It is an offshoot of all of the above but it goes even deeper. Some, especially on the right, would say that it is no more than old fashioned liberal elitism and that is part of it too, but it goes beyond that.

There are many things that go into the Ruling Class mentality.

*We know better than the people that elected us, therefore we can do what we think is best regardless of what the majority of the people who voted for us want.

*Our position entitles us to perks and influence beyond that which our position gives us.

But the most irritable one, the one that is really taking hold in our Federal Government in particular is simply.

*The rules do not apply to us.

It used to be that if you got caught doing something unethical, illegal or even unseemly as an elected official, you were gone, dismissed, prosecuted or at least chastised. But with the new Ruling Class mentality in government this is not necessarily so. Why? Why does Chris Dodd get a pass on his obvious unethical mortgage deals and still run the committee that oversees Banking?

I did a series of posts on Charlie Rangel, here, here, here. With all his misdeeds he should have been gone long ago, at least from his chairmanship, so why is he still there? Because they are too important to the Democrat's agenda. Don't get me wrong this is not just a Democrat problem, I'll explain in a minute, but Charlie Rangel for political purposes is critical to advance legislation that Pelosi and Obama want that is coming up. Charlie Rangel is part of the Ruling Class that now happens to be in power.

Republicans to their credit, are far less accommodating to scandal in their ranks, but they still have a big part in the establishment and maintaining of the Ruling Class . In fact when this recognition of this new attitude in government really hit home to me was this past fall during the debate over what became known as TARP. First was the process of the Secretary of the Treasury being given this tremendous power, but the clincher was when my candidate for president John McCain suspended his campaign and went back to Washington to be involved in the debate. I truly felt he would put his voice behind those that opposed it. Had he done it I am convinced he would be President today, but he didn't, why? Because he is a member of the Ruling Class. He like many of both parties has been in politics so long that he has developed another key ingredient to membership in the Ruling Class.

*They can't see the forest for the trees.

They have been in office so long or actually do not see that the cumbersome mechanisms of government are not reality. Principles, traditions, and common sense are smothered by the shear weight and influence of bureaucracy.

Recently, in describing the request for massive intervention into the financial system, George Bush said :

“And I readily concede that I chucked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression,”

As much as I respect President Bush for standing up to nearly the entire world in regards to Iraq, what can you say about the above statement other than his actions were not based upon his principles it can only be described as unprincipled.

See how this sounds:

"Faced with mounting debt and the possible loss of my house, I freely admit I chucked my principles and robbed the bank, your Honor"

Guilty or not Guilty? Unfortunately part of the reason we have begun to establish the Ruling Class in America is that far too many people would acquit me.

One of the advantages to our party system is the added layer to the checks and balance system. Not only do we have the Constitutional ones but a political one. With our party system the two parties are constantly keeping tabs on the other and pointing out each others short comings. Although this can be irritating, it does keep a check on out of control corruption and abuse of power. This is particularly necessary when one party holds all the cards like the Democrats do now and the Republicans did for the first six years of this decade.

We are about to be given a Secretary of Treasury, whose tax problems should surely disqualify him for any Cabinet post, least alone this one why? Because he is a member of the Ruling Class, and it really does not matter. As the Washington Post put it when he was nominated.

A Democrat and a relative unknown outside the world of high finance, Geithner has worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. to devise responses to the most critical events of the market turmoil, including the bailouts of the investment bank Bear Stearns and the insurance giant American International Group. Like Paulson, Geithner believes that the Treasury should be given vast powers to develop experimental strategies for responding to the crisis and the flexibility to abandon them if they don't work.

He is being confirmed by members of the Ruling Class because he knows the ins and outs of the problems he helped create.

This man was put forth by a then President-Elect Obama, knowing he was a tax cheat.

Obama's team informed Baucus and Grassley of the problems in early December, and a subsequent investigation by their staffs unearthed another embarrassing detail about Geithner: that a housekeeper he employed in 2005 allowed her legal immigrant work status to lapse for three and a half months.
It was the unpaid taxes, though, that were proving more of a problem. Obama's team says his mistake was a common one for people hired by international organizations and foreign embassies that don't pay the employer share of Social Security taxes. ...

He is being confirmed by Senators of both parties because he is just too important not to be made Treasury Secretary. Senator Kent Conrad, D-N.D, said about his confirmation and his tax problems.

"In normal times, that would be enough to cause me to oppose his nomination, but these are not normal times."

Perhaps it might be first asked, why are these not normal times?

*We know better than the people that elected us, therefore we can do what we think is best regardless of what the majority of the people who voted for us want.

*Our position entitles us to perks and influence beyond that which our position gives us.

*They can't see the forest for the trees.

*The rules do not apply to us.

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