Chapter dzǻ: American Democracy Diagnosed ȂȅȂthe self-nomination process is over, the opinions and values of the elec-
torate are decisive. However little the voters know about the vast major-
ity of political choices confronting them, “they do have enduring images
of what the two major parties are about in presidential politics” (p.ȁȆǿ).
Ļey apply these images and they pay attention to the campaign as they
choose between the two major candidates—or many of the voters do, so
the qualification should run. Another qualification should be that the vot-
ers are choosing only between two candidates that they have not them-
selves deliberately nominated.
Ehrenhalt identifies a “central contradiction” of the U.S. political sys-
tem that cries out for explanation: although voters have shown a clear pref-
erence for Republican presidential candidates over the last twenty years,
this has done nothing to give theGOPa majority in the country as a
whole (p.ȁǿȇ). Yet his own method of analysis suggests how to explain
this “contradiction,” as well as the common observation (if it is correct)
that voters tend to disdain Congress in general while admiring their own
particular representative.
Presidential elections deal with the big picture. Voters are interested
and informed—relatively. Ļey have a chance to express conservatism
more effectively than in local and Congressional elections.
Voters may dislike the performance of Congress as a whole. Taking
the system as given, though, they can sensibly elect a representative who
knows how to manipulate it in defense of their interests. Forbearance from
grabbing their own supposed share of federal largesse would not appre-
ciably turn the system around. Responsible government—government
responsible to the general public interest rather than overresponsive, piece-
meal, to numerous local and special interests—is a public good; pursuing
it has prisoners’-dilemma aspects. Why should one’s own representative
behave responsibly when few others would follow the example and when
the payoff to himself and his or her constituents would be so slight and
conjectural? Furthermore—as is one of the book’s main themes—their
representative tends to be a specialist in providing services to constituents
and in projecting an attractive personal image.
Ehrenhalt mentions the chronic U.S. government budget deficit as an
example of irresponsibility or dissipation of responsibility in the political
and legislative processes (although he does not phrase the matter just that
way; see pp.ȁȃȄ–ȁȄǿ). More generally, the political system has developed
a critical flaw: “It has allowed power and leadership, at many levels, simply
to evaporate” (p.Ȃȇ).