Kindergarten Rules

The folks we have representing us in Washington right now should read Robert Fulghum’s little book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. This government shutdown is revealing them to be very much like spoiled children who cannot learn to get along. Any kindergarten teacher worth his or her salt could straighten them out in about five minutes if they would listen.

I have linked to the list above, but I wanted to apply some of Fulghum’s ideas myself. First, “Share everything.” Power is Washington is meant to be shared. That is the beauty of the founders’ plan: limited government with multiple checks and balances. Power is supposed to be shared between the three branches of government. If actions speak louder than words, then President Obama is saying that he thinks he was elected king and the rest of us peasants must do his bidding, including Congress and the courts. If he can’t get his program rammed through Congress (like Obamacare), then he just orders the job done by one of the many bureaucracies the executive branch controls (like Cap and Trade). So much for shared power.

Second, “Play fair.” The phrase, “All’s fair in love and war” needs to be amended with the addition, “and in politics.” If Cervantes’ intention in Don Quixote was to imply that sincerity trumps morality, then the shoe certainly fits. The Obama administration seems to believe that their ideology is so important that its implementation must proceed regardless of moral, ethical or legal boundaries. There are many examples, but the one that comes immediately to mind is the recent scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. There are others: voter intimidation by Black Panthers, capitalizing on emotion laden situations like Congresswoman Giffords being shot or the Sandy Hook tragedy, knowingly sending guns to Mexican thugs, barricading national monuments and attractions because of the shutdown.

Next, “Don’t hit people.” There have been few reported physical assaults, I admit, but verbal abuse is rampant. Two of the cardinal rules of rhetoric are to argue responsibly and respectfully. Ad hominem attacks are supposed to be below civil argument. The kids in Washington need to be reminded of that.

Then there is, “Clean up your own mess.” There are so many examples of this I don’t know where to begin. The federal government has gotten so large and so intrusive that I fear nothing short of a literal nuclear option will ever bring it back into its intended proportion. No Child Left Behind is a mess; the farm subsidy situation is a mess; immigration and border security is a mess; Obamacare is a mess; I could go on. These are messes that Congress and the burgeoning bureaucracies have created. There is an old joke that asks what you call a lawyer drowned in the bay; the answer is a good start. That’s what I would call ending just one government program that operates outside of the narrow boundaries of our Constitution. After that we should go on to deep six the rest of them.

There are about a dozen other lessons on Fulghum’s list, many of which are a perfect corrective to the childish whining and bickering going on in Washington right now. I have not written much lately because I am sickened by what I see, and I see no point in endlessly repeating the same charges. I chose to write now because I stumbled across Fulghum’s list and the word “childish” seems so apropos. All I can say is I hope we can elect a few grownups to send down there in the next couple cycles. God help us if we don’t.