Fight the Devil, Become the Devil

          I like where I work, because there are opportunities for interesting conversation.  I had one last Saturday morning with somebody who used to be on the city council.  (Note my unusual quotation marks below, meant to indicate that I do not remember the conversation verbatim, a point made in the essay “From History to Hysteria”.) 

          ‘What if we [the voters of Montebello] chose to expand our city council to nine seats, each with a district?’ I asked. 

          ‘It would not help,” she said. 

          ‘If we became a charter city?’ 

          ‘No.  The answer is to vote out those city councilors who do not act in the interest of the people.’ 

          Hmmm.  I pause to think.  Now, hours later, an answer comes.  When we fight the devil, we risk becoming the devil.  We elect candidates who promise reform in Congress, but the reform does not happen.  (Look back to 1994, at the Republican Party’s “Contract with America”.  It is no different for our state legislature, county board of supervisors or city council.  The devil, that is, the political culture and institutions, is strong.  A candidate goes on a crusade and find himself / herself joining the devil, perhaps unknowingly.)

          It is either naïve for a candidate to think, or disingenuous for him or her to say, that he or she could change a political culture and its institutions, even when he is she is part of a large group.  (In 1994, Republicans gained fifty-four seats and took control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1954.  They remained the majority until early 2007.  What significant, permanent positive change took place during those twelve years?)   

          How, then, to beat the devil?  Change the rules of the game.  Double, triple, even quadruple the number of elective seats, enabling a large number of people to bring the change which a relatively small number could not bring under the present arrangement. 

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1.  “Fight the Devil, Become the Devil” means that

(a) dirty tricks would have to be used to change the political culture.

(b) an elected official with good intentions would not be able to do away the vices he or she is trying to change and, in fact, might succumb to those vices. 

2.  Beating the devil would necessitate

(a) overwhelming and changing the political culture by greatly increasing the number of elective seats and then electing people committed to changing that culture.

(b) changing the state constitution so that every elected body in California be significantly increased in size, enabling a large number of citizens to dislodge and replace the entrenched the political culture. 

June 21, 2007