States are the remedy for federal government’s dysfunction

OPINION:

As Washington grows more distant and self-protective, state governments remain closer to the people. If Washington has one defining feature today, it is a moral disorder that increasingly mirrors its fiscal disorder.

Perhaps the most revealing episode this month was in the House of Representatives, where members of both parties voted 357-65 to keep sexual-harassment-related ethics records from public view.

After years of secrecy surrounding a process that critics rightly condemned as a taxpayer-backed slush fund for congressional misconduct, lawmakers had a chance to choose transparency. Predictably, they chose to dodge public scrutiny.

It’s no secret to most Americans that Congress seems less interested in servant leadership than in protecting the club inside it. Committee hearings are increasingly performative theater for viral rage bait or fundraising fuel.

Some members continue to enrich themselves through insider trading while the general lack of accountability at the federal level deepens our public frustration and exhaustion.

Simply put, Washington politicians hold too much power, and power corrupts. Their behavior has deepened Americans’ doubts that Congress can confront much-needed structural reforms, including overspending, entitlements and ethics.

One of the surest correctives to our national disillusionment is to remember that Washington is not the whole of American government.

In his 1925 State of the Union address, President Coolidge reminded the country: “Local self-government is one of our most precious possessions.” More than that, he called it “the greatest contributing factor to the stability, strength, liberty, and progress of the Nation.”

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Coolidge also reminded Americans that the national government must not trespass on the responsibilities of state and local government. The long disregard of that principle has helped create a quagmire that increasingly drives our political dysfunction.

This is not because state government is pure. State legislatures have their own vanities, shortcomings and episodes of dysfunction, but they tend to operate under conditions more favorable to accountability than those prevailing in Washington.

One of the main reasons for that is simple: proximity. State lawmakers typically live much nearer to the consequences of their decisions. They do not merely represent communities in the abstract; they live among their constituents.

They attend local events, encounter constituents in ordinary settings and remain enmeshed in the civic life their decisions affect. Their children often attend nearby schools. Their families worship at local congregations. Their reputations are tested not only in the chamber but also in the daily rhythms of community life.

As American statesman John Randolph of Roanoke put it, “Government, to be safe and to be free, must consist of representatives having a common interest and a common feeling with the represented.” That does not guarantee virtue. It does, however, create healthier incentives.

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State lawmakers should be intent on separating themselves from the dysfunction of Washington rather than imitating it. That means taking seriously their duty to scrutinize federal dollars, resist one-size-fits-all schemes imposed from above, and reassert the proper authority of states over matters best governed close to home.

It is important voters remember that borrowed federal money, bureaucratic incentives and political fashions from Washington do not absolve state leaders of responsibility for prudence and aggressive oversight.

If there is a remedy for Washington’s dysfunction, it will not begin with one more viral video or outburst from the nation’s capital. It will begin with citizens paying closer attention to whom they elect to statehouses, county commissions, school boards and city councils.

Those offices shouldn’t be viewed as consolation prizes or as the farm team on the path to national politics. They remain the offices on the front lines of self-government.

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If confidence in America is to be restored, then it will begin with electing state and local officials determined not to replicate Washington’s disorder but rather to check it.

• Ray Nothstine is a senior writer and editor and a Future of Freedom fellow at the State Policy Network. He manages and edits American Habits.