One of the biggest downsides of working in
politics is that you have to read what politicians say. If you’re not careful,
you wind up talking like them, and I recently realized my writing style was a
mess.
Budget season is recently over, so for about a month
I sat and watched Jersey Democrats feud with Governor Christie over who’s
really cutting taxes and who’s really helping the middle class. It’s amazing
how vigorously all of them, including the Governor, sling buzzwords that mean
nothing. All the epithets, moral fervor, and slogans only say, “I’m being a
cookie-cutter partisan.” Everybody knows the real issue is Christie’s
reelection in 2013. So New Jersey has a Democratic budget patchworked with
Republican vetoes, and I think the whole thing is insulting.
Budget talk is the worst because even the people I
think I agree with prefer slogans to information. But I’ve had a couple of mild
shocks lately to hint that I might be more like them than I know.
On one of our wedding trips this summer, a friend put
on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in
the car. I’ve always loved the scene between Caspian and Governor Gumpas in the
Lone Islands: Caspian shows up, switches effortlessly into king mode, abolishes
the slave trade, and brings the Lone Islands back to Narnian allegiance all in
about an hour. Gumpas becomes the laughingstock of the town and Caspian
appoints Lord Bern as Duke in his place—“We’ve had enough of governors, I
think.” But listen how he talks when Caspian questions him about slavery:
“I want to know why you
have permitted this abominable and unnatural traffic in slaves to grow up here,
contrary to the ancient custom and usage of our dominions.”
·
“Necessary,
unavoidable, a necessary part of the economic development of the islands, I
assure you. Our present burst of prosperity depends on it.”
·
“Your Majesty's
tender years hardly make it possible that you should understand the economic
problem involved. I have statistics, I have graphs, I have . . .”
·
“But that
would be putting the clock back. Have you no idea of progress, or development?”
I wish I could find the
whole exchange; sadly I don’t have the book. But much to my discomfort,
Gumpas’s logic started tooling nicely along in a mental groove I didn’t know I
had. Too much Trenton in my ears, evidently.
Similarly, when we went to
the Hoover Dam, I was amazed to see Congress’s approval resolution, because
they didn’t justify the project on the numbers, or on benefits for
infrastructure or development or local economies. Congress approved the dam because
it would “tame the desert.” What? A speck
of vision?
