49. Democracy. Debt Ceiling.

Democracy. You have to have the machinery — the laws, the facilities, the parliamentary rules, the system — and you have to have a certain kind of people using the machinery. The collapse of so many democracies after they got started shows how necessary both are and how difficult long-term success is. Democracy, we know, is a fragile thing.

One thing about surviving democracies is that they're full of old machinery, some of it still working well, some kept working by clever adaptation, and some of it — like our Electoral College — just sitting there. It's like junk DNA.

Interesting but harmless, right? Wrong. As long as it's sitting there old machinery can be used, and in ways dangerous to democracy. Somebody can come along and say, "Hey, here's something that will help me get my way." That's the way it was with the rule that senators had to be allowed their full say on the Senate floor. "Hey, I can keep talking and get my way with this legislation." That's the way it is now with the debt ceiling, that junk from World War I.

Neither is compatible with the democratic ideal: representatives judging the will of their constituents, fighting for it in open debate, getting what they can in a compromise, giving in when they lose, and submitting to judgment on their performance in the next election. The machinery opportunist (equally likely to be a Democrat or a Republican) sweeps all that away so he can have his way. Give it to him or he'll jam the machinery.

Here's where you have to talk about the kind of people, their character. The machinery doesn't work by itself. If you trust it to you could see the system fail, the organism die — as cells die when invaders get ahold of some of the junk. You've got to have operators who, at the crucial point, put the life of the system ahead of getting their — or their party's, or their clan's, or their class's — way.

I have, in an earlier post ("Patrimoine." #42), admired the English Protestants of the 17th century as just the right kind of people to operate a democratic system. They gave us the model. In their crucial choices they put the life of the system ahead of the way of their party. I see that many of the Congressmen now making use of the debt ceiling relic are the heirs of those English Protestants. They are in the same ethnic and cultural tradition. How can there be any doubt that, when the crucial point comes, they will choose the life of the system? They can't be invaders.

Well hell, in the heat of debate we Americans are always doubting our opponents' commitment to the system. Plus, it's an effective accusation. After the fight's over we'll play golf together. Surely we'll do that again.