The Governmentality Crisis

The most disturbing aspect of the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina is how badly virtually all American officials, state and local, elected and appointed, performed. Democrats and Republicans may debate who was worse, the Bush administration or local officials, but we are talking about the difference between a D- and an F. Moreover, a good case can be made that these awful performances are not simply individual failings, but rooted in several relatively stable features of contemporary American politics.

We live in the era of the permanent campaign. Once the next presidential campaign started after the congressional midterms, then it started after the last presidential election, now people are jockeying for position for the next presidential election long before the present one has ended. Similar accounts may be given of congressional and local elections. This system, not surprisingly, puts a premium on candidates will excellent campaign skills. This, also not surprisingly, is George Bush's greatest skill. From his youth, he has been fascinated by campaigns, taken part in them, and been very good at campaigning. The only problem with this child of the permanent campaign is that he does not seem to be fasincated with policy, takes little interest in policy details, and is not very good at matters of public policy (and this is not a Republican v. democrat issue--surely a President Lugar or McCain would have done substantially better). I suspect this is true of a good many elected officials on both sides of the aisle. Given our system rewards campaign competence over policy compentence, what we get are likeable people with little interest in the details in governance.

This is not to fantacize about the past. Our ancestors had their own set of faults. But it is to express a concern about the present. Perhaps our present crop of elected officials are as compentent as their ancestors. The problem may be they need to be better and they do not seem to be.