The human brain is likely hard-wired to assume that tomorrow
will be like today. This coping mechanism effectively narrows the window of our
cognitive and perspectival range. The status quo not only endures; it is
dominant, whereas reform must push hard to see the light of day. In politics,
establishment interests, made wealthy in the status quo, bet their
contributions on the political insiders—the establishment politicians who
embrace the status quo. As a result, an electorate is manipulated and mislead by
branding ads to the extent that it cannot be said that the real will of the
people is done. The ensuing public policy is also not of that will; rather,
legislation protects the vested interests in return for their contributions. A
republic in the grip of this self-sustaining cycle can be said to suffer from a
kind of hardening of the arteries. As times change, such a ship of state
becomes increasingly unmoored from its people. Eventually, the ship sinks,
after the pressure of incongruity has reached an unsustainable level. I contend
that the 2014 U.S. Senate election in Kentucky between the Senate’s minority
leader, Mitch McConnell, and his Democratic challenger, Alison Grimes,
illustrates this political illness in action.
The full essay is at “Washington
Insider Sustained by the Establishment”
