Largesse

 

First, the Doorkeeper

Largesse

Then, the Mobs

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

  

            If there is an endangered species among Homo sapiens, it has to be the cowboy who has worked by himself most of his life.

            Certainly, he has been joined by a crew at the time of heavy work, but those special few who shoulder the big end of yearly work alone are rare. They are different when they encountered, too. Often they can do anything. In addition to their skill with livestock and horses, they can run equipment, they can weld, they can work on engines, they can plumb, they can be relied upon to know something about electricity, they can work on pumps, and the list goes on. They can perform a myriad of things that most other folks have no inkling of ever doing and or no intention of ever attempting.

            To the individual, they are early risers.

            When there is a task, their inclination is to get it done. What they can get done is most often commendable and unseen. Their work ethic could probably be compared to the concept the Founders had for the elected political leadership. What was envisioned then certainly has no appearance of our modern-day Congress. Perhaps this country could do with a bit of revamping and force a bit a cowboy logic into the expectation of these public servants.

            First, the Doorkeeper

            When the United States Senate achieved its first real quorum, one of the first matters of business was to create a “doorkeeper”. It wasn’t that body’s intention to delegate anything away from their immediate assemblage, but they surely didn’t want prying eyes or loose lips to report proceedings to the press. Their first business was to select a door keeper to keep the room guarded and order maintained. James Mathers was that first trusted individual.

            The following day the matter of a public administrator was addressed. The position became known as the Secretary of the Senate and Samuel Otis was hired to fill that role.

            When the first of six nominees for the Supreme Court were confirmed, the process took place in a single day and the reason for such work was not incidental. There was no Judicial Committee because the body was the committee. There were no political parties so there were no leaked press reports, special interest instructions, or grandstanding. Neither was there a Department of Justice to critique nor dictate torturous legal wrangling of process. In more simplistic terms, there was no judicial activism to divide the hall or the country.

            When the senate met to confirm President Washington, they basically rubber stamped the election results. That action, however, became more rigorous in subsequent actions, but another huge difference between then and now simplified the process immensely. There was no staff to bog the process down. The elected officials made the decisions they were elected and expected to do.

            The lone cowboy would know exactly what that implies.

            Then, the Mobs

            The gradual ascent into higher realms of confusion began when demands from the people, the press, and the envious state legislators (largely who failed to get elected to higher office) demanded the doors of the hall be opened to the privileged. Of course, the demand was couched on the basis of the people, but the common people were never the observers who were grumbling. The premise of the people was a convenience and a tool of emotion just as it remains today.

            When absenteeism became an issue, the senate created the position of sergeant at arms and gave him the authority to force absent members to appear.

In an interesting corollary of leaking information to the press, the editor of a Philadelphia published information on a proposed bill that would alter how electoral votes were to be counted. The incident not only prompted the body to create a committee to oversee the count, but they used the Sedition Act of 1798 to prosecute the editor!

So it went as the process became more complicated and the elected membership more isolated from the day to day functioning of the body. That was hastened by the power and the clout of emerging political parties. Fast forward to 1852, and the current run began as all presidential selections have been confined to the two dominant political parties.

Concurrent with that, agency proliferation blossomed as did this terrible ruse of staff. It was not just a Washington condition, either. Observe any governing body today down to and including local government and the referral to staff is universal.

This is referred to staff, that is referred to staff, we are awaiting a response from staff, we should assign that matter to staff and on and on toward ad nauseum until there must be the obvious realization that the entirety of American government is so reliant on staff there arises the demise and outright threat to the entire nation. The outcome is contagious. Too many leaders are figure heads and too many figure heads have become life endowed office holders.

That lone cowboy who relies solely on his own wit must consider himself a true dinosaur.

Largesse

A theorem is suggested.

For those who haven’t been violated by modern education, you will remember a theorem is a general proposition not self-evident but proven by a chain of reasoning, or, better yet, a truth established by means of accepted truths. The theorem proposed is that our government is no longer a representative republic. Our system has long been a limited democracy overlain by political parties, and, as such, the Constitution has no bearing on governance.

It has been relegated to golden calf relevance. It is symbolic.

As such, our lone cowboy is ashamed of what his country has become. Without saying so, he believes the erosion of the tenets of its foundation created the fabricated pit of leadership displayed in Europe this past week.

The greatness of the concept has been cancelled.

 

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.