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May 22, 2013
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 The House of ProfessorsPosted on Jan 6, 2011Edmund Burke, one of history’s greatest conservatives, warned that abstractions are the enemy of responsible government. “I never govern myself, no rational man ever did govern himself, by abstractions and universals,” Burke wrote. “A statesman differs from a professor in a university; the latter has only the general view of society; the former, the statesman, has a number of circumstances to combine with those general ideas.” Alas for all of us and for American conservatism in particular, the new Republican majority that took control of the House on Wednesday is embarked on an experiment in government by abstractions. Many in its ranks pride themselves on being practical business people, but they behave as professors in thrall to a few thrilling ideas. Their rhetoric is nearly devoid of talk about solving practical problems—how to improve our health care, education and transportation systems, or how to create more middle-class jobs. Instead, we hear about things we can’t touch or see or feel, and about highly general principles divorced from their impact on everyday life. Advertisement Republicans promised they would “repeal and replace” President Obama’s health care law but the only thing on the schedule is repeal. They provide no alternative. A leadership that promised a more open process highhandedly slammed the door on any amendments to its repeal bill. Most Americans rather like the new law’s ban on insurance discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions and the provision allowing parents to keep children on their health insurance plans until age 26. But there will be no votes on those parts of the law because attention to those inconvenient “circumstances” Burke discusses would divert attention from the great, abstract scarecrow of “Obamacare.” There is nothing wrong with reading our Constitution as part of the new Congress’ debut. It’s a good Constitution. But note that conservatives would much prefer to pronounce various liberal initiatives “unconstitutional”—again, in the abstract—than to say whether they are for or against minimum-wage and environmental laws, Medicaid and a slew of other initiatives that never crossed the minds of those who wrote our foundational document. The Founders couldn’t conceive of Facebook, either. And that other perennial abstraction, “excessive regulation,” is easier to assail than specific rules that make our air and water cleaner or financial transactions more transparent. Intelligent legislators know that human beings sometimes cut corners. They recall what James Madison, another conservative hero, said in Federalist 51: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” As Madison knew, men aren’t angels, but the professors in Congress seem to believe that another great abstraction, “the free market,” can obviate the need for messy and complicated statutes. We hear much debate over how Obama and the Democrats should deal with the Republican House and beefed-up Republican ranks in the Senate. The primary task should be a relentless campaign to move the public discussion from the abstract to the concrete: from doctrine to problem-solving; from “smaller government” to the specifics of what government does; from “budget cuts” to the impact of reductions on actual programs. And paradoxically, because Obama is a former professor himself, he may be especially well-suited to call the bluff of the new professoriate in Congress. He knows better than most the dangers posed by an excessive devotion to abstractions. But the media also have a responsibility. If journalism in a democracy is about anything, it is about bringing the expansive rhetoric of politicians down to earth and holding them accountable for how their ideas translate into policies that affect actual human beings. It may be easier to report windy speeches about “liberty” and “entrepreneurship” than to do the grubby work of examining budgets, regulations, programs and economic consequences. But journalists surely want to be more than stenographers. Michael Oakeshott, another great conservative philosopher, declared: “It is the mark of all intelligent discourse that it is about something in particular.” Let’s encourage the new professors who would govern us to deal with particulars and not just their ideological dreams. E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.  TAGS:
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Another Memorial Day in This Endless War
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By skimohawk, January 9, 2011 at 10:12 pm Link to this comment
Campaign ( and all other political ) rhetoric is invariably spoken only in abstractions. This eliminates any possibility of anything said alienating and/or arousing any constituent group.
Report thisGenerally the broadest abstractions that appeal to the broadest segment of the electorate are what we hear the most. These two facts should be obvious to anyone who has watched any of the mainstream Sunday-morning talking-head programs.
The problem is not the politicians, who are of necessity talking only in abstractions. The problem is those who are interviewing them, who lack the fortitude or perseverance to insist on concise answers to concise questions. Sure, some will feign some degree of doggedness, and ask the same question three or four times, patiently listening to the same rehearsed “talking points” answers over and over. ( Does “Meet the Press” come to mind at this point? )
But none of them have the balls to come out and say “Senator, that’s bullshit. How about a REAL answer to the question?”
THIS is the problem. We’re afraid to say “bullshit” when we SEE or HEAR bullshit.
The solution is simple: call bullshit!
By Shenonymous, January 9, 2011 at 9:12 am Link to this comment
One sure way to keep tricking the population is to speak in general
abstractions. That way there is nothing real to get a hold of. And the
only sounds the public hears are promises that play into their
hallucinations of a better life. When the public is made to understand
that is the Republican-Way, and force the Republicans to make firm
(concrete) the details of their tour of office, what damage they will really
do, then the public will throw the bums out.
Way to go ray! Getting specific is real activism.
“The TP/GOP claim to strongly support the idea of a good education for
all.” It is only a continuation of their chronic hollow rhetoric. Liberals
need to advertise profusely the utter meaninglessness of uninterrupted
Republican hot air.
The word society is an abstract term for it designates nothing in
Report thisparticular but a group of undistinguishable people. If society is a
nebulous abstraction, then how does one get a handle on any aspect of
it? One has to have something concrete to grab onto if change is
desired. Perhaps Bohm was not the end all philosopher to talk about
concreteness, but I doubt he went about his physics using abstractions
even in his theoretical quantum physics and neuropsychology both of
which do deal with intangibles. He would have ended up unintelligible.
By ocjim, January 8, 2011 at 2:41 pm Link to this comment
To associate the term professor with Republican miscreants is an insult to those who have attained higher learning and another slight on our universities.
Report thisBy aacme88, January 8, 2011 at 4:57 am Link to this comment
Mr. Dionne. You are right in what you say, but it doesn’t go far enough. The Republicans speak in generalizations, because that is the verbal equivalent of smoke and mirrors. These are not “professors in Congress”, accustomed to living the life of the mind in ivory towers. Hardly. For the most part they couldn’t be further from that.
Report thisThese people don’t have solutions to problems because they don’t care about those problems. They want to turn the country back to the robber barons, a return to oligarchy, where wealth travels upward and unemployment, education, health care, are simply not issues to be addressed. Security, yes, they’re all for that.
But don’t expect constructive suggestions from this crowd. It’s not that they can’t focus on solutions to problems. The only problem they see is that they are not in power running a religious police state for the benefit of a few at the top.
By ray, January 7, 2011 at 10:07 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
If we get together, publish their names & addressees & take turns shitting on their lawns- they might just get the message that enough is enough?
Report thisIs the early demise of a republican a good or bad thing?
By berniem, January 6, 2011 at 5:43 pm Link to this comment
Republicans today, while alleging allegiance to conservative principles, are really nothing more than a gang of Savants whose only truly unique talent is talking out of their asses!
Report thisBy TAO Walker, January 6, 2011 at 4:25 pm Link to this comment
Haven’t “the Democrats” already pretty much cornered the market on simplistic-ism….or would that be simpletoneity? Or is this Old Indian misreading the meaning of “Shelley”? What’s wrong, “slogan”-wise, with….
ALL TOGETHER….NOW!!!!
HokaHey!
Report thisBy gerard, January 6, 2011 at 3:39 pm Link to this comment
Shelley: How about “Reprsentation (too much of it)
Without Taxation!”
referring, of course, to corporate
giveaways from government at the expense
of citizen-taxpayers.
“Representation without Taxation is Tyranny” etc.
yranny!” etc.
Report thisBy the worm, January 6, 2011 at 1:20 pm Link to this comment
Nice work, EJ.
Thanks.
The Worm
Report thisBy Shelley, January 6, 2011 at 1:10 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Mr. Dionne is always gracious.
The voters want jobs. The Republicans will equate big business (which they will call “small business”) with jobs.
In that way they will justify every corporate tax cut, evasion of regulation, and anti-labor power grab.
Democrats need something simple to reframe this meme.
Report thisBy felicity, January 6, 2011 at 12:10 pm Link to this comment
Great comments today. A quick perusal of what the
Repubs have in store for us reveals their devotion to
policies which fly in the very face of the basic
reason why governments exist at all - to protect us
from each other and to protect us from ourselves -
so, time to work on making this government redundant.
To recap Mr. Dionne; in theory, theory and practice
are the same thing but in practice they’re not.
The future? Republicans keep saying that government
Report thisdoesn’t work and they get in it and prove it - which
is one way of being ‘right.’ Called cognitive
dissonance.
By kerryrose, January 6, 2011 at 12:09 pm Link to this comment
Don’t all ideals begin with abstractions? It seems to me that one must have a ‘vision’ of reality. That vision could be considered an abstraction. You start with the vision, the goal, and proceed to accomplish it through concrete steps.
I mean, if we never define our ideal world, how in the world can we take steps to realize it?
David Bohm, a philosopher/physicist, complained that we never make big accomplishments, like tackling hunger, because we make concrete program after concrete program that deals with the sympton. To solve big problems he asserts that we must change society, and our way of thinking.
We need an ‘abstract ideal’ to do that, not a million more random and unconnected little concrete problem-solvers.
Report thisBy Maani, January 6, 2011 at 11:59 am Link to this comment
How strange. The TP/GOP claim to strongly support the idea of a good education for all. Yet they are probably the least educated bunch of people who have ever taken office. Indeed, some of them are (there is no nice way to say this) morons and ignoramuses. And they rail against the erudition of many members. (in a few cases, despite their own post-graduate education…)
Report thisBy mrfreeze, January 6, 2011 at 11:45 am Link to this comment
TAO Walker - What a wonderful post. Thanks for that…especially paragraph 3. You’ve articulated something there that I’ve tried to put into words for a long time.
Report thisBy magus12, January 6, 2011 at 10:19 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
@ TAO Walker
Beautifully put.
Report thisBy ardee, January 6, 2011 at 8:40 am Link to this comment
One cannot help but notice that buzz words and empty phrases are suddenly on the lips of right wing pundits, commentators, politicians and supposed newspersons all on the same day. Thus my conclusion that there is certainly a “vast right wing conspiracy” under way.
That these mantras appear and disappear sans any attempt at detail gives credence to the opinion that they serve only to keep a portion of our electorate angry and of the opinion that those aformentioned “leaders” actually intend to make changes that benefit someone other than themselves. They seek , not to change the fabric of our nation, but to keep themselves in power and their masters, the wealthiest among us, in charge.
All the stated intentions of these right wingers are nebulous, sans actual detail and bode no good for the majority of we the people . Isnt it a pity that no one speaks for us.
Report thisBy TAO Walker, January 6, 2011 at 3:20 am Link to this comment
Surely even a mediocre scribbler like E.J. Dionne can’t be completely blind to what’s really going-on here….behind all the smoke-and-mirrors, the blather-and-bluster, the blizzard of meaningless “abstraction.” It’s “triage-time” in “America.”
There just isn’t room anymore even in the foundering “global” eCONomy, never-mind in its collapsing U.S. compartment, for everybody who thinks they need and are entitled to be in it. So the excess “baggage” is being tossed overboard.
The unproductive, the unconnected, the uninsured, the unattractive, the unorthodox, the unamerican, the unexceptional, the undernourished, the undeserving, the unsaved, the unprepossessing, and a whole lot more of Babs Bush’s THOSE PEOPLE, and all their Young’uns, are slated to be soon taking their chances out here in free wild Indian Country. They get to go swimming with The Fishes and flying with The Birds, running with The Wolves and playing with The Antelope, Singing ‘n’ Dancing with Life Herownself.
Those other guys, the “self”-obsessed, “self”-satisfied “abstraction”-ists, what about them? They’re not our “problem.” They’re probably gonna wish to Hell they were, though, before their numbered Days are done.
Welcome home, Sisters and Brothers!
HokaHey!
Report this