Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Lemma 2) Every action will have some effect you were not expecting.

Warning: political post

The Lieberman debacle, which in my mind was a pretty transparent attempt by Lieberman to put himself ahead of his party and keep his perqs, seems to have had an unintended consequence: Other candidate are beginning to say, "to hell with a party affiliation, I don't need one to run"

Today's example come from Mr. Tom DeLay's Houston district.

At least three GOPers have thrown their hats in the ring, and the local Republican leadership is scheduled to meet Thursday to make the call. One, perceived frontrunner David Wallace -- also mayor of DeLay's (former?) hometown of Sugar Land -- says he's running no matter what party says.

This is, in my mind, an untrammeled Good Thing. The two parties have tried everything imaginable short of a constitutional amendment to entrench themselves as the only way to power. And they have had tremendous success. This has led to more than a century of kleptocratic bad government. I'd really like to see more candidates eschew party and run as independents. Who know? It might lead to better policy and a saner nation.

Naaahhhhh.....

1 comment:

Brian Dunbar said...

This has led to more than a century of kleptocratic bad government. I'd really like to see more candidates eschew party and run as independents. Who know? It might lead to better policy and a saner nation.

It could make things much worse. As-is things work. Maybe well, maybe not so-well but things happen. Payroll comes out on time, the government does what it must - and yes a great deal of what it must not.

Make changes and .. who knows? It's not as if you can refer to a handbook with nice tables, charts and references to figure things out.

Note: I'm not for the status quo, just against change for change sake that could botch things up.