Mr. Monk Goes to Washington

The series has come to an end. There will be no new episodes of Mr. Monk on television. The nation’s most famous obsessive-compulsive detective has gone into retirement. Those of us who loved him will miss him. But not to worry. He has metamorphosed into a new form. He has now taken the shape of any number of Democratic legislators.
One of the repeated conceits of the television series was that Mr. Monk was frequently distracted by his need for symmetry and order. Rather than follow clues, he would be diverted by his desire to create perfectly square sandwiches. When his colleagues protested, he would assure them that everything was okay; and that they “would thank [him] later.”
Today it is congressional Democrats who are saying the same thing. Their need to pass comprehensive health care legislation has blinded them to the consequences of their actions. Just as with Mr. Monk they have lost their ability to prioritize rationally because they are so fixated on a particular goal.
The current legislation passing through congress is deeply flawed. It simultaneously raises taxes, hikes insurance premiums, damages health services, and blows the lid off the federal deficit, but they express no alarm. Instead they assure their constituents that these are wonderful bills; hence when fully implemented, the voters will thank them for their compassion.
This tunnel vision is so extreme that not only does Mr. Monk come to mind; so does something Abraham Lincoln said. As most school children learn, Lincoln observed to a White House visitor that “you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Nowadays the “some of the people” you can fool all of the time seem to be liberal Democrats themselves. Or rather, it seems to be the case that liberals are prepared to fool themselves virtually all of the time.
Mind you, it is not that their logic and eloquence are so persuasive as to be irresistible. Conservatives, and more recently moderates, have managed to remain unmoved. No, it is the liberals who are fooled because they want to be. So intent are they on achieving a specific end that they remain oblivious to contra-indications.
Congressional Democrats have been lobotomized by their own obsessions. They are easy marks for self-deception precisely because they so want to believe. Rather than assess the effects of what they are doing, they routinely persuade themselves that all will turn our well—no matter what.
Even when it seems likely that the next congressional election may witness many of them marching off a cliff, they refuse to change direction. They would apparently rather suffer the equivalent of political death than relinquish their cherished obsessions.
The problem, of course, is that their compulsions may soon result in untoward consequences for innocent bystanders. This is not a TV show where a happy ending is guaranteed. Some people will lose their jobs and some pay higher taxes. Some may even die prematurely.
But none of this matters to Washington’s Mr. Monks. They are convinced that they know best, even when backing a legislative monstrosity of epic proportions.
Some of these unintentional Tony Shaloubs have read the political tea leaves and decided it is time to retire. Others have not yet awoken from their self-induced stupor. The real issue, however, is whether the public will wait to see if they will eventually thank these lawmakers.
The protests from the hinterlands have already been fairly vociferous. But they may have to be more so, that is, if they are to piece through the mental disorder with which some of our leaders seem afflicted.
Either that or come next November there will have to be a wholesale political house cleaning. People may need to be sent home from Washington so that they can recover from the muddle into which they have fallen.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University