Someone brought to my attention this Anderson Cooper interview with an Arizona legislator who supported a bill to require that anyone running for president on the ballot in Arizona produce a birth certificate to establish his bona fides.
What interested me about this is not yet another silly argument over the absurd things birthers believe. What interested me was the concept of being a political leader that Cooper was trying to impress upon this GOP lawmaker.
The lawmaker was saying that HE believes — sorta kinda — that President Obama is a U.S. citizen, born in Hawaii. But he maintains this is a good idea because a lot of people don’t believe it, and this would avoid controversy in the future.
Cooper’s point — his editorial point, more suited to an editorial board meeting than a news interview — is that if the lawmaker has constituents who don’t believe Obama’s a citizen and he knows he is, doesn’t he have an obligation to lead and tell the constituent that he’s wrong, rather than pander to him by passing legislation that tacitly acknowledges he may have a point?
I like this point because it’s one that too few politicians grasp today — that they are delegated to learn MORE about issues than their constituents have time or resources to learn, and to act accordingly. Instead, what we tend to get are weathervanes. And a weathervane elected representative is worse than useless; he’s actually harmful to our republic.
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Most lawmakers are weathervanes. That’s been the norm and always will be. It’s the few that drive things forward. Which is neither a right or left, liberal or conservative thing. Progressive, people used to say.
Some elected officials do care about public policy. I think most people can tell the good from the vane, but we all collectively accept the self-serving to our own collective detriment.
Unfortunately, SC’s system of governorship-lite encourages the wrong kind of legislative body. But then at least we don’t also have the Referendum approach to democratic chaos that has paralyzed some of the western states.
Are we still a Republic?
I thought we had devolved to a contest between the optimates and the populares.
We just have the delegation approach which micromanages local government and passes itty-bitty laws that apply to just one county. Sigh…
Not a birther but…
Wouldn’t you have thought a candidate for an office that requires being a natural board citizen would have to submit proof of his/her qualifications to get on the ballot? Don’t people running for a South Carolina office have to prove they are legal residents of the area they want to represent? Didn’t we once disqualify a gubernatorial candidate who had not lived in the state as long as required?
Make that “born” not “board” citizen!