The King of Topsy-Turvydom

There is little good to say about the current state of American politics, but were he alive today William S. Gilbert might appreciate and even draw inspiration from it.

W. S. Gilbert was the British dramatist who, along with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, created the series of light operas that became a staple of theatrical entertainment in nineteenth century London. A newspaper critic once uncharitably dubbed Gilbert as the “King of Topsy-Turvydom”, a reference to the characteristic Gilbertian storyline in which nothing is as it seems, reality is temporarily turned upside down, but everything seems to work out at the end. The monicker stuck, and “topsy-turvy” later lent its name to Mike Leigh’s excellent 1999 movie about the making of Gilbert & Sullivan’s classic piece, The Mikado.

I was reminded of Gilbert and his world of topsy-turvy the other day as Jim Bunning, the mean-spirited and odious Republican Senator from Kentucky, single-handedly held up the passage of emergency legislation extending unemployment and COBRA health insurance benefits for millions of Americans without work, and preventing cuts in fees to physicians treating Medicare patients. Bunning, who invoked a procedural objection to prevent the resolution passing by unanimous consent, objected to the measure on the grounds that it violated the “pay-as-you-go” law, which requires Congress to match new spending either with corresponding cuts in other programs, or with increases in revenue. The legislation does not apply to emergency appropriation measures and has been waived on numerous occasions. Bunning finally relented, amid a flurry of finger-pointing press releases accusing the Democrats of “hypocrisy” and “continuing the irresponsible spending that has plagued Washington for too long.”

Listening to him pontificate on the Senate floor, the casual observer might have well have mistaken Senator Bunning for an austere yet principled man - one who believes so strongly in fiscal discipline that he is prepared to set it above the needs of the many Americans who, in times of need and crisis, have nowhere else to turn for assistance but the Federal government. But, as in the world of topsy-turvydom, all is not what it seems. To begin with, Mr. Bunning didn’t even support the pay-as-you legislation when it was voted on; along with many of his Republican colleagues, he voted against it. Second, Mr. Bunning raised no objection when the prior administration enacted tax cuts for the rich, and appropriated billions of Dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, without even a hint of where the money would come from.

Although Bunning’s recent disgraceful antics embarrassed even some of his Republican colleagues, his criticism of the years of “irresponsible spending” comes straight from current GOP talking points. Republicans even cite the ballooning Federal deficit as an excuse for not to passing health care reform legislation that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would actually reduce the deficit. In the topsy-turvy world of Republican spin doctors, Democrats are somehow to blame for the $4.9 trillion of debt that piled up between the day George W. Bush took office and the day he relinquished it, and now it is up to the Republicans to straighten things out.

But the kingdom of topsy-turvy is not  inhabited solely by Republicans.  President Barack Obama is now once again Candidate Obama, barnstorming the country, addressing townhall meetings (minus jacket, tie loosened and sleeves rolled up by exactly the right amount to suggest a man hard at work), railing against health insurance companies and demanding that Congress pass “his” health care reform program. What we see on stage is the “change we can believe in”, the man driving the process of  health care reform, the “yes we can”.  But what we see is not the reality; it is topsy-turvy, and on a grand scale.  Because the reason we do not yet have health care reform (and are unlikely to get meaningful health care reform in this session of Congress) is precisely because Barack Obama failed to provide leadership early enough in the process to make a difference. For too long, rather than take on the corporate interests, Obama sought to cut back-room deals with them. And the final bill will likely not include the public option that progressives wanted and expected, that the U.S. needs, but which Obama never really seemed to support.

So the “reform” that Obama now seems ready to take ownership of is not real reform and owes little to his efforts. He has simply concluded that the political calculus suggests that passage is now sufficiently likely that he is not risking major political capital by belatedly putting on his captain’s armband. He has also concluded that public expectations are so diminished that the watered-down proposals he is championing will indeed be accepted as true “reform” and that he will be given credit for it. Barack Obama has become the W.S. Gilbert of his day – the King of Topsy-Yurvydom. And as in a Gilbert & Sullivan drama, the absurdities and contradictions are accepted and taken for granted.

Gilbert liked to poke fun at the arrogance and ineptitude of the political establishment. That’s why I think he would appreciate today’s goings-in in Washington. But there is a big difference between Gilbert’s world of topsy-turvy and the topsy-turvydom that is U.S. politics. Gilbert’s is a temporary state, an amusing and pleasant interlude in which, after two hours, the absurdities and contradictions are neatly (however improbably) resolved and from which we re-emerge into the real world feeling better for the experience. The topsy-turvydom of current U.S. politics is a frustrating and demoralizing nightmare in which the absurdities and contradictions are never resolved and from which, it sometimes seems, we may never emerge.