Dennis Clayson

The primary elections of last week reinforced an old saying that people get the government they deserve. It can be a hard dictum when we look at the sum of human misery stacked to ever increasing heights by one government after another.

Does this mean, for example, that the Germans in the 1930s "deserved" Hitler, or that the people of Russia "deserved" Stalin, or that Americans "deserved" Bush?

Except for some isolated examples in both time and place, the proposition is more true than false.

It certainly explains a lot in American politics.

Someone asked me recently why we have the crazy primary elections.

"Why," she asked, "don't we just vote and get it over with?"

This is an excellent question. We have created a system that goes on forever. A system that gives power to the media and the spin doctors, one that almost guarantees to eliminate any candidate who actually has an honest stance on issues. A system that gives us bland, homogeneous presidents who will do almost exactly what everyone in Washington is already doing.

Why do we have this system? The answer is simple. We want it that way.

We want the drama and the money. Deep within us, we are still marching out of Babylon with a mystery religion still burning in our hearts. We want to elevate an individual to god-king status and then crucify him for our collective sins. We expect he will then rise from the dead, forgive, and save us all.

We are illogical and corrupt.

We want "change." So even though Congress has approval ratings close to 10 percent, we create an election in which our only choice is one senator or another. We despise Washington, so we eliminate every candidate who isn't a Washington insider.

We hate wasteful government spending, so we give ourselves a choice of people who will spend more than any of their predecessors.

This little bit of craziness reminds me of a man who hired a worker who turned out to be a thief. He fired the man and hired another worker who also turned out to be a thief. The original worker came back and offered him a deal. "Get rid of that thief," he said, "and rehire me. I'm not a thief like him, I'm better at it."

We keep voting for magic that even Santa Claus couldn't deliver. We elevate candidates who promise to give us what can't be given. We buy into it because we want what is in our neighbors' wallets. We vote for politicians who promise to use the coercive force of government to take property from others and give it to us.

We vote for candidates who promise to punish those we envy. We say, "I'm getting poorer. It must be someone else's fault."

Sure enough, a politician stands up and points to the "others" and shouts, "It's them. They are the ones who are making you poor. Elect me and I will make them pay."

"Yes, there are two Americas. Elect me and I'll take your revenge for you."

It all echoes like Europe in the 1930's.

So we want a president that is a god. One that will give us things we have not earned. One that will punish those we dislike. One that will feed us when hungry, house us when homeless, warm us when cold, cool us when hot, educate our children, and guarantee us an ever increasing list of "rights" that can only be obtained by restricting someone else's freedom.

But most of all, we want a president who will do all this without telling us any of the very nasty details that are necessary to pull it off. We want this president to say the right things, to use the correct words, to calm us and remove our anxiety, and evoke the blessing of heaven down on our heads at the end of every feel-good communication.

Corrupt people can't believe that everyone else isn't corrupt. They can't tolerate a decent person because that person must be a phony, or hypocritical, which oddly enough is the ultimate sin for the corrupt.

So the tyrants, the liars, the cons, or those who walk a tightrope down the middle while pretending not to be insanely messianic become our candidates to run our government for the next four years.

We deserve what we get.