Lex Libertas

A very good friend of mine is a returned Peacecorps volunteer who taught in Bulgaria. Missing his home of three years, he found a Bulgarian restaurant in Los Angeles. I remember, from my time spent visiting, that Bulgria has pretty good food, and since I’m always game for trying new restaurants, I agreed to accompany him. We walk in, and the waitress looks Slavic, so we’re both thinking that Rob has finally found a Bulgarian to practice with.

After being handed our menus, Rob breaks out the Bulgarian for “Do you speak Bulgarian?” “No,” comes the answer, “I’m Russian.” “Of course,” Rob groans, as he looks over at me. Slightly jealous, he adds, “You’re in America, and you spend half the time speaking Russian!” It’s true that I’m grateful for the fact that I’ve found Russian-speakers here, and I certainly understand his frustration. After spending three years learning a langauge, it’s a shame to feel it waste away from disuse.

Bulgaria was a great place to visit, and I’m enjoyed both the people and the country. In the end, however, there are about 140 million Russians, and 8 million Bulgarians, which explains a lot. One of the main reasons I picked Russian was that I felt it was still an important world language, which seems to be holding true - even in LA.

What, exactly, is the job of a member of Congress? The simple answer is “to represent constituents.” That doesn’t really help, and needs clarification. Are they to bring back pork to their district? Get a disproportionately large share of federal funding? Present an ideological front? Enact legislation favorable to one’s district, and thus by definition unfavorable to someone else’s?

As a proponent of limited government, I think their primary purpose should be to protect their constituents from government intervention into their lives, and maximize freedom and security (while being aware of the intermittent trade offs between the two).

Our representatives are tied to geographical locations (single member districts), which is, on balance, a good thing. They have an audience to whom they are directly responsible - which should create a check on the most egregious abuses. This check is not as explicitly present in a Parliamentary system based on proportional representation.

One of the major drawbacks of our system, however, is that we do not have anyone in the legislative branch who is supposed to look out for the interests of the country as a whole. Instead, it’s a contest between these various regions to get the best results for one’s constituents. At times, this system can fight very hard against the national interest. For example, say we need to close some military bases. Well, no member of the legislature will want to close the bases in their districts, and they’ll fight hard to stop it. Yes, this is a check on the executive, and yes, ideally the legislature would be made up of people who can rationally look at a situation and decide the best outcome, but it’s not.

This rambling post was inspired by a conversation going on over at Brian Dennert’s blog. I come from a district on the edge of Los Angeles that is squarely Republican. We returned our Republican congressman to office, and now some people are complaining that since he’s in the minority, he won’t be able to get anything done for our district. Essentially, they are saying that the most important quality for a congressional representative is to be in the majority party, so that they can get things done.

I, naturally, disagree. I think this argument is premised on the idea that government should be activist and redistributionist, and that only by being in the majority is a representative in a position to push through bills beneficial to one’s constituents. Unfortunately, my comments are still broken, so please stop on over and tell us what your position on the issue is.

John Edwards _ a vocal critic of the retailer _ asked his local Wal- Mart store for help in getting the potential 2008 presidential candidate a Sony PlayStation 3. Edwards said a volunteer did so by mistake.

Edwards told The Associated Press that the volunteer “feels terrible” about seeking the game unit at Wal-Mart a day after his boss criticized the company, saying it doesn’t treat its employees fairly.

“My wife, Elizabeth, wanted to get a Playstation3 for my young children. She mentioned it in front of one of my staff people,” Edwards said. “That staff person mentioned it in front of a volunteer who said he would make an effort to get one. He was making an effort to go get one for himself.

“Elizabeth and I knew nothing about this. He feels terrible about this. He made a mistake, and he knows he should not have used my name,” Edwards said.

As you all know, any leftie worth their salt hates Walmart from the essence of their being. That said, there is an apparent hypocrisy in someone criticizing a company and then shopping there. Moreover, if true, Edwards used his position of power to get access to a good other people spent days waiting in lines for.

Whether he was involved in the process or not, once the word got out, it would have been very easy for Edwards to lay all the blame on the volunteer who did the legwork. Instead, he handled the situation responsibly and respectfully spoke of the volunteer. This display of civility is a welcome change for the usual rancor of Washington DC, and reflects well upon Edwards.

Just because everyone else is doing it:

The Republicans will not lose either chamber. They will lose seats, but they will stay in power. I am especially confident about Corker and Allen.

Why:

This is not 1994. The Democrats have no agenda, which makes it difficult to capitalize on the general mood of dissatisfaction of the country. Instead, there will be some protest votes, but no real earth-shaking changes.

Update: Wow, I was pretty wrong on that one. The Democrats won back the majority in both Houses with absolutely no plan. That’s impressive. I’m not sure how I feel about it. The Republican Party has moved away from solid conservative principles, and honestly, i didn’t particularly care for a lot of the candidates. Of course, I wanted to retain the majority, but looking back, that majority hasn’t done much for Conservative causes. Hopefully now we’ll have the long-needed soul searching and return to our foundational ideas.

Exactly three years ago today I left the US for Russia. Therefore it is somewhat fitting that I should return to the US on the same date. I’m exhausted from my Moscow-LA flight, and I’ll try to put something up in the morning about what this means.

There was a little performance at the Souvenir market yesterday: