Too Much of a Good Thing Why we need less democracy.(Former Obama Director)

The New Republic ^ | 09/27/11 | Peter Orszag

[barmag25]

In an 1814 letter to John Taylor, John Adams wrote that “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That may read today like an overstatement, but it is certainly true that our democracy finds itself facing a deep challenge: During my recent stint in the Obama administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, it was clear to me that the country’s political polarization was growing worse—harming Washington’s ability to do the basic, necessary work of governing. If you need confirmation of this, look no further than the recent debt-limit debacle, which clearly showed that we are becoming two nations governed by a single Congress—and that paralyzing gridlock is the result.

So what to do? To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.

[I cannot think of a name]

“harming Washington’s ability to do the basic, necessary work of governing”

Your definition and my definition of “necessary” is completely different.

[sunmars]

I sense a common Dem talking point coming through today, first Gov Perdue, says we should suspend elections, now this bozo.

What are the dems planning.

[barmag25]

Funny how this was released about the time when Bev Perdue said the same thing.

[GatorGirl]

It’s a good thing we are not a Democracy. Whew!

[RobbyS]

Obviously Orzag either does not understand the thinking of the Founding Fathers or he does not approve of it. Ironically, the Constitution aims to prevent “efficient” government and “democratic” government by establishing checks and balances.

[Louis Foxwell]

What are the dems planning.

Whatever it is it is not good. The dems are about to lose all of the "progress" they have made. They will not go quietly into the night. Fortunately they no longer control the House. That may be our only salvation from outright revolution.

[ColdOne]

Funny how this was released about the time when Bev Perdue said the same thing. Yup! Oh they all think alike. She wasn't joking and they would love to end this country.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

[ColdOne]

What are the dems planning. I am sure they are planning non stop. They have the destruction of this country within their grasps. They will not go quietly.

[Eldon Tyrell]

Note that we didn’t have this “problem” two years ago - when they were stealing us blind.

He needs a punch in the face.

[throwback]

He doesn't really mean that the problem is that the government has become inert, rather that the liberal agenda has. If the mass of government began to swing back the other way, reducing spending, regulation, and government reach, that would be government dislodged. I'm sure that is not the type of government activity that would please Orzag. Like an object in motion, the government is now experiencing no velocity because the force of freedom must first overcome the Leftist momentum and then move the government back the other way.

[redgolum]

Wow.

Seems like we have a few calls for tyranny.

[newheart]

Funny how this was released about the time when Bev Perdue said the same thing.

Also funny how a recently published book called Dare Less Democracy is stirring things up in Europe. Coincidence?

German-foreign-policy.com

[crazyhorse691]

The libs embrace Democracy...until it no longer suits them. Just thought I would never actually hear them say out loud what they have been doing for years. The scariest part is that I have no problem envisioning drooling libtards nodding their heads in agreement.

[Thom Pain]

Putzes like Orslag are exactly why the Constitution is constructed the way it is! Read the words of the Founding Fathers. They foresaw exactly what we are experiencing.

[GeronL]

The Gov of NC and the columnists of the NY Times agree. This was to be part of a new meme from the left it seems.

[DustyMoment]

I’m always suspicious of ANY former administration ‘officials’ who leave and turn on their former boss.

While I don’t disagree with Orzag’s ideas here, I am suspicious of his motives. What’s going on behind the scene to make him write this??

Inquiring minds . . . .

[Maverick68]

not on our watch...

[arthurus]

Orszag doesn't include the Congress in "the government." To him the "government" is the Executive Branch alone. The legislature serves primarily as an obstruction to the smooth running of "government" and should be replaced by a Bureaucracy that answers only to the President and probably not much even to the President insofar as staffing the bureaucracy and the details of its functioning are concerned. His ideal government is one designed by Franz Kafka.

The Republicans already accept much of these ideas in that Republicans will not "clean house" in the Departments and Bureaus when they get the Presidency. They allow the Bureaus to function, largely in near open opposition to the Republican President while Republicans just wring their hands and say "what can ya do?" Democrats make cleaning house their first order of business.