Sausage-Making: Why “Process” Matters

Something odd happened when Barack Obama went on Fox News to defend his medical reforms. When asked about the legislative procedures used to advance his programs, he coyly averred that he was not much interested in “process.” What mattered to him was protecting the health of the American people.
This was particularly strange because the president was then up to his eyebrows in the process of passing his bill through the House of Representatives. He might proclaim the importance of “substance,” whereas his greatest efforts were reserved for deal-making and arm-twisting. He even went so far as to issue an executive order regarding abortion in order to seduce the last few Democratic holdouts.
Nevertheless, process does matter. It matters deeply. Indeed, when process becomes too distorted, it is transformed into a violation of substance.
We must never forget that Democracy is about process.
So is the Constitution.
And so is the Bill of Rights.
These processes are what protect us from tyranny and demagoguery. They are what enable the us to stymie the aspirations of would-be despots. These rules provide the means of saying No when the will of the people is being violated.
It may be harsh to say, but Barack Obama fits the dictionary definition of a demagogue. Can it be doubted that he is using poplar prejudices and false claims to advance his own agenda? Can it be denied that he seeks to manipulate public emotions in order to enhance his own power?
Right after his bill passed, the president went on television to announce that he had listened to the voices of the people when he manifestly had not. He surely recognized that the polls were against him, but did not care. Convinced that he knew best, he would do whatever it took to prevail.
How many times in recent months have Obama and his minions pulled out the crying towel? How often have they pointed to the supposed plight of individuals in order to arouse public sympathy? It was not the merits of their program that concerned them so much their ability to mobilize emotional support.
And how many times have they resorted to corrupt deals to collect legislative votes? It seemed that no invidious dispensation was beyond them—as long as it served to buy a ballot. They were even prepared to use the patently unconstitutional “deem and pass” (or was that demon pass) if needed. Indeed, they are still prepared to violate tradition by resorting to reconciliation in the Senate.
What is more remarkable is that Obama and his associates are prepared to defend these violations as “business as usual.” Everyone, they tell us, does it this way and therefore it is no big deal. –Maybe so, but no one in living memory has done it on this grand a scale.
The Democrats—who are democratic in name only—also tell us that legislating is a messy business. It is like making sausage; hence it is best not to look too closely at the details. Evidently they have not read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. In this work, Sinclair described how meat packers once included rat feces and human body parts in their sausage. Today it is legislators who are doing the equivalent.
Sadly, Obama and his friends seem oblivious of what they include in legislation. This is troublesome because in the past it was the government that intervened to regulate the food industry. And it did a good job too. But now the government is itself engaged in unsanitary practices. As a result, it is up to us to do the regulating. It is now we who must defend democracy!
Benjamin Franklin when asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had produced replied “A republic—if you can keep it.” Well, the crunch has come. It is now up to our generation to preserve the freedoms our forefathers bequeathed us. Obama and his anti-democratic crowd cannot be allowed to get away with their assault on our time-tested institutions.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University