The Streets Were Paved with Gold - Ken Auletta [150]
Politicians come to judge themselves, and be judged, by whether they deliver the pork; whether they offered grants rather than their own best judgment and wisdom; whether their decision was in the immediate interest of their district or city rather than the long-term interest of the nation. Wisdom and good management are not easily quantified. Hard cash counts. More grants, more programs, more roads, more dams, more malls. John Lindsay baldly justified his seconding speech in behalf of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1968, saying it guaranteed the city would have a friend in Washington. Abe Beame justified his 1976 support of candidate Jimmy Carter on the same grounds. The unspoken assumption was that from these political acts would flow public monies. That legitimized their decisons.
Obviously, it’s not always easy to be a leader. The fundamental tension between a democracy and a republic, between our social and our economic system, is reflected in our politicians. Should they follow what voters want or their own best judgment? Polls or their conscience? Most of us are not immune to this conflict. During the early stages of the Vietnam war, like others of my generation I protested that the war was immoral, no matter what Lyndon Johnson’s pocket polls said about “popular” support. Yet in the latter stages of the war, when the polls reversed, we demanded that Nixon terminate this “unpopular war.” Many of us are enraged at members of Congress who follow their constituents and vote against federal loans to New York—and at imperious politicians who ignore popular campaign finance reforms. It is in New York’s long-term interest to drastically reduce taxes. But how do you tell a worker to sacrifice a raise in order to increase business profits?
The public doesn’t help. The word “politician” has come—particularly in the post-Watergate period—to carry more negative freight than it should. We forget that a free society presupposes consent, which in turn presupposes compromise. Abe Lincoln, we forget, was a politician. He made deals, compromised, trimmed his sails, worried about tactics. So do reporters who try to seduce sources through flattery. So do business executives who ingratiate themselves with their bosses; teachers, with their principals; principals, with their superintendents; union leaders, with their members; lawyers, with juries. Americans suffer a double standard. On the one hand we resent politicians for “compromising,” and on the other we all compromise. In theory, the only people who don’t are dictators.
All of us like to feel morally superior. Unfortunately, New York politicians make it easy. Over the years, most have flunked Publius’ test. They failed to distinguish between what was popular and what was in the public interest, between immediate political gratification and the city’s long-term interests. Most of us can be selfish, foolish, hypocritical. But we’re not paid public money; nor are we granted a public trust. In this sense, politicians should be held to a higher standard. It’s not enough for them to explain that everyone was doing it; that it was the times, the pressures, the public thirst. Public officials are elected to lead, as well as follow. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment,” Edmund Burke admonished the Electors of Bristol; “and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” Democracy requires that the electorate exercise self-restraint, the famed Austrian economist and philosopher Joseph Schumpeter wrote in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; but democracy also requires that when institutional checks fail, the ultimate check be the restraint and good judgment of leaders.
After completing his survey of fifty-one cities, the University of Chicago’s Terry Nichols Clark concluded, “The most consistent message of these findings is that local leadership can make a substantial difference. Fiscal strain is greater on local officials with weak tax bases and large numbers of poor residents. But some cities are fiscally healthy (like