Results Matter

A coupla months ago HERE I suggested that Congressmen may be putting too much effort into political gymnastics, and simply supporting good policy that succeeds and makes sense is enough to get them re-elected:

Sometimes I wonder if members of Congress spend too much time out-thinking themselves - political twists within themselves and blocs determined by political games within political games, thinking that come re-election time they will be rewarded for these efforts/games etc.

But the theory of Congressional Stagnation tells us that most voters aren't really paying attention anyways, and, short of getting caught dating a Cub Scout, the odds that you will be re-elected in your district are incredibly high. Which means you probably don't necessarily need to do political grandstanding and gamesmanship-filled filibustering to keep your job. You can probably support things you think are actually good policy and make sense, without having to stoop to make yourself look like a clueless idiot/complete jackass for the party line, and still get re-elected with little to no worry.

Today HERE Matt Yglesias shows polling that the public is opposed to pretty much "everything," making policy choices in a haphazard, schizophrenic of-the-moment way. Yglesias finishes by saying "What you want are institutions that result in politicians being held accountable for results—you tend to lose your seat if your governance leads to disaster—rather than accountable for adherence to public views on particular issues."

Which is what I've been saying for months - the public isn't keeping a tally of what you've opposed and how much money you think you've saved them - if for instance healthcare turns out to be successful, everyone will be like "hey, great, healthcare is cool" and whoever had wanted to can get the credit for it, a la my posting HERE:

Hey, I'm sure back when they were deciding it, somebody voted against having the government keep an active army. Yet when we're attacked these days, we think "gee, it's sure handy to have an army ready to go."...

Take healthcare for an example. Republicans will have you believe this is some 4th quarter boogeyman Obama is pulling out - oh no! radical Marxist healthcare for everyone!! Except he ran his campaign on it, and mentioned it about 86,000 times, and Americans were so freaked out by it we voted him in with a pretty comfy margin...If the shit works, then in 10 years everyone's gonna be sitting around saying "gee, we all have healthcare, isn't this great?"

And HERE:

And yet the GOP, in fighting Obama every step of the way and publicly hoping he'll fail, has foolishly put itself in the position of having to stand there while Obama (whether one thinks he deserves it or not) will be reaping all the credit for something that the very philosophy of their political party dictates would happen ANYWAY. All this instead of going along with some things and letting themselves be there in the end-zone with Obama and having things at a kind of a tie ballgame. And yeah, they'll pound their fists that success was achieved in SPITE of Obama's stimulus et al. But I'm guessing that most people are gonna wanna think that all their tax dollars (and those of "the next generation!" we hear so much about) actually made a difference in things succeeding and weren't for naught. Had the GOP thought to hire me earlier, I might’ve suggested to NOT choose the side of having to hope the economy stays in the shitter as long as possible. But my offer still has not come. Hmm.

When asked, people will always bitch about taxes and spending anyways, no matter what. We all do it; there will always be something. In the meantime you might as well have public policies and institutions that work and let those be the "scorecard," not political grandstanding and backs of phantom bubblegum cards.