The Curse of Complacency

(This is my tenth letter to those who serve us by working in state government. You are in a unique and critical position to support all Americans in their pursuit of happiness and to ensure our nation prospers. My hope is to inform and inspire you in your work.)?

Letters 1-9

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Letter #10

To Our State Employees,

I share a bit of history with you in hopes you will take to heart my previous nine letters.?

According to Edward J. Watts, the Alkiviadis Vassiliadis endowed chair and professor of history at the University of California, San Diego, democracies tend to die from one of two things, tyrants who in the early years see the switch in political systems as an opportunity to seize power, and the other, as the result cycles of political dysfunction that were ignored because the citizens simply could not imagine that their republic could die.

In the online publication Zócalo Public Square, Watts writes about how the fall of Rome has many lessons relevant to this day.

?“The Romans inspired the American separation of powers, the system of checks and balances, and the presidential veto – because Rome showed how these constitutional elements compelled lawmakers to compromise with one another by preventing narrow majorities from enacting policies that did not enjoy broad support,” writes Watts. “Both Rome and the United States developed into economically sophisticated world powers because their republics gave them an unmatched ability to build broad political consensus behind difficult national decisions.”

Do you see a problem in what the professor describes as one of our system of government’s great strengths?

“But ancient Romans eventually grew to take the survival of their Republic for granted. In the second century B.C., the tools that had encouraged compromise and fostered political consensus for more than 300 years were transformed into weapons as Roman economic expansion opened a large wealth gap between the richest Romans and everyone else.

Watts warns that citizens of democratic republics like ours are not easily roused, rarely giving credence to the slow erosion of long-held political norms. But since 1994 Americans now experienced as routine the exercise of once unimaginable political muscle for no other reason than to assert power in an effort to control political forces. Government shutdowns, blocking confirmation of cabinet members and judges, even the denial of a hearing for a Supreme Court justice – and now the frightening reality of voting by party line.

?At the end of its 1,000 years as the longest-lasting Republic in the history of mankind, the Roman people turned to populist Tiberius Gracchus who capitalized on only a decade of inaction. He was willing to use any means to force economic reforms into law, didn’t hesitate to remove rival lawmakers who threatened to veto his reforms – and then funded his reforms by forcibly appropriating the money he needed from the Roman Senate.

“All of these things violated the political norms of the Republic,” writes the UCSD professor, but Roman voters seemed disinclined to punish Tiberius for any of them. He was stopped only when opponents killed him in a riot.”

While the average citizen can do little about keeping our nation on track, you can do something that matters. By doing the best job possible to make sure our state government works, you can help keep this amazing nation on track.

?Thanks for doing what you do.

John