IN POLITICS IT PAYS TO BE AN ARTFUL DODGER
(…by making promises that can’t or won’t be kept)

As previously noted – Campaign 2016 – is off to an earlier than normal start, particularly among Republicans. Even so, serious discussions or debates about what to do about many of the important concerns we have as a nation will be set aside and left in the hands of the President. He, alas, will have a very hard time getting anyone in Congress to focus on these, because all their attention will be fixed on how to maneuver for 2016.

Call it serendipity, but we just recently happened to be browsing through a biography of ancient Rome’s Caesar Augustus and came across a passage quoting that wily ancient politico called – Cicero – which seems extremely a propos with our situation today. Our deficiency in Latin being what it is (we never got much beyond amo, amatis, amat), we’ll take the liberty here of paraphrasing what Cicero said: ” The most successful candidates for public office are those who willingly make the most lavish promises, because that’s what people want to hear. Even a polite decline to do so might give someone offense, so it is better to make such promises as slavishly as possible. Even if those promises aren’t kept, a good politician can always use the excuse that he would have kept them if he could have, but, other things beyond his control prevented it; thus, all those who were given those empty promises will grudgingly accept such excuses and forgive him.”

Old Cicero knew what he was talking about, it seems, because nothing much has changed in the over two thousand years since. In politics it pays to be an artful dodger…by making promises that can’t or won’t be kept. We, the –populi – are still just as seduced by empty campaign promises when it comes time to choose someone for public office. We vote for those who make the most promises which appeal to our emotions rather than to our common sense (because that’s a bore!). Of course, those politicos who are more skilled at packaging such promises so that they will appeal to both our emotions and common sense, we call them – demagogues -…and these are the most dangerous ones because by that skill they can come to power…and, voila, you have another Hitler.

Meanwhile, the first gatherings of the trumpeting pachyderm herd in both Iowa and Southern California are doing just that, and the braying jackass pack that will soon follow will be doing the same. All of these maneuvers, however, are nothing more than political foreplay, for which the salacious “lubricant” for it is money…lots and lots and lots of it…all aimed at getting the proper voter arousal to achieve the political equivalent of orgasm… getting elected.

Pardon us, but all of that has just sparked one of those – ah hah! – moments here, which has just turned on a small bulb of insight…is it possible that the reason the American economy is so much more resilient than any others around the world is because, every four years, a tsunami flow of campaign funds flows out over the entire country? Granted, it is somewhat momentary, but its spread and reach are so large, it’s sufficient to sustain every nook and cranny of our economy until the next Presidential election round. Meanwhile, in between those rounds, our inherent GDP capabilities fill up any gaps. It’s a bit of speculative economic theory, no doubt, but it may be worth a more in depth study just to confirm it (economists please note).

Well, perhaps the reality is another paraphrase of an old aphorism…what’s good for (GM) any politician…is good for America.

CENTURION