Political Failures Lead to Health Failures
These are fearful times.
Part of our fear is related to how we feel about government officials at all levels of government. Some of us are fearful of loose cannons, some of broken cannons, and most of us are concerned about corrupt officials. Government official performance is our chief fear dictating what will happen to our country going forward. Besides our wallets, they can negatively impact our health.
This is very much related to one of our biggest personal fears, fear of failure. If we have poor functioning officials, elected or bureaucratic, it can cause our country to fail.
According to a survey done by Chapman University four months ago, our number one fear for the country is “corrupt government officials” (currently 62%), and that has been at or near the top of that survey for eight years. There are two types of failure that we fear, the fear what government officials will do or are doing, and others fear what they will fail to do.
At the very top, running for president, we are presented with two candidates where we fear one is a loose cannon and the other is a broken cannon. Our fears of many of the others are that they are corrupt.
A loose cannon is “someone who behaves in an uncontrolled or unexpected way and is likely to cause problems for other people.” Loose cannons generally fall into the fear over what they will do, taking outrageous actions with calamitous outcomes. A broken cannon on the other hand doesn’t work the way it is supposed to, and the fear is what it will fail to do. Finally, there is corruption, where actions taken by corrupt officials are not in line with what is best for the country. For example, corrupt members of Congress may be bought off with campaign funds and go along with loose or broken cannons when they should be holding them accountable. In fact, they are acting in their own interests or the wealthy people that are funding (bribing) them.
The outcomes for the country are different for each type of failed government actor. Here are some examples and you should be able to easily fit popular government actors into these categories.
Loose Cannon
Loose cannons may “weaponize” federal agencies against their domestic opponents.
Loose cannon appears to many to be a threat to “our democracy” by ignoring the rule of law, like ignoring subpoenas.
They will ignore the plight of poor citizens in favor of immigrants who come into the country illegally.
Broken Cannon
Broken cannons do not appear to be able to run the country.
Broken cannons may fail to defend against, Russia, China, or Iran aggression.
They will not take action to control inflation or spending.
Corrupt Government Officials
They will pass laws that will move us toward socialism.
They will not enforce criminal laws.
They will pass regulations that help the wealthy big businesses and harm small businesses.
The idea that government officials, including politicians, will act in their own interest was explored by Nobel Prize winner, James Buchanan, seventy-five years ago. In his 1949 paper, "The Pure Theory of Government Finance: A Suggested Approach, said that, “Don't expect politicians to behave differently. They behave according to their interests.” I suppose we might also add that they don’t become different people when you elect them, they bring their personal issues with them.
Whether their failures affect health indirectly, by negatively impacting the economy affecting our income or wealth (for example, decreasing resources for buying healthier food, or to exercise); or directly by increasing violent crime, leading us into war, or failure to make food, water, or air safer, government officials at all levels can affect health.
Buchanan finished by saying, “if you want to improve politics, improve the rules, improve the structure.” He called this “politics without romance.” We might think more carefully about how we elect politicians and hire more bureaucrats, not just rail against them when they are just being people.