Monday, September 29, 2008

Democracy works

The US House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street with 228 votes against 205. I have no idea whether that ultimately was the right decision or the wrong one. Everyone has an opinion, but most of it is based on rhetorics, not facts. Would the bailout have "saved the financial system" or have been "good taxpayer money thrown after bad fat cat speculations"? In the absence of a parallel universe where the vote went the other way, nobody can say for sure.

But in all the excitement most people missed how democracy won the day. 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted against the bailout, 65 Republicans and 140 Democrats for it. So while both sides quickly blamed the others, in reality we had something very special and rare here: Congressmen voting based on what their constituents told them, and their own political beliefs, and ignoring what their leaders told them to do. Perfect bipartisanship in the sense that neither side voted along party lines. There is a lot of talk about failure of leadership at the moment, but in my opinion this is a good thing. Politics shouldn't be determined by a handful of leaders, but by the voice of the people. And for once this actually happened. Democracy worked. And if you believe in the "wisdom of the crowds", maybe the decision was actually the right one.

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