Every American who wants his or her children to live in a democracy should become familiar with this word: heresthetic. It is defined as "strategic political maneuvering, management, and manipulation, the goal of which is to structure a situation so that one wins, regardless of whether other participants are persuaded to accept one's views. Common tactics include agenda control, strategic voting, and reformulation of issues. 'This is what heresthetic is all about: structuring the world so you can win' (William H. Riker, The Art of Political Manipulation)." A 1986 Wall Street Journal citation says that "Heresthetic is largely an American art . . . . And it is still an open question whether the American experiment in representative government, led hither and yon by skilled manipulators, can resist the challenge of a determined totalitarianism." [Derived from Harper's, July 1988.]   Herestheticism is killing our democracy by sapping the will of the electorate to participate in a game that they know is rigged against them. Examples of this practice are commonplace.

Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. -- Samuel Johnson, 1775

 George Bush (Senior), a master heresthete, manipulated the government process to his advantage and subverted justice by having federal savings and loan regulators hold off on closing down Silverado Banking Savings & Loan -- his son Neil was an outside director -- until after the November 9 election. Presidential candidate Bush was attempting to delay public discussion of the savings and loan mess, discussion which would have diverted public attention away from the patriotic posturing of his salute-the-flag campaign and onto an actual issue. He wished to avoid any attention being drawn to him by his son's role, as well as any controversy about whether or not he could have headed off the catastrophe as Vice-President.

    In October, 1988, before  the election, a reporter asked him about the savings and loan issue and how much money would be needed to bail out the industry. Bush said, "[We need to] reassure the depositors that they are in no jeopardy at all." However, one month after his inauguration, Bush announced a rescue plan for the thrifts which could eventually cost taxpayers 500 billion dollars and take 40 years to pay for! U.S. Rep. Bruce Morrison (D-Conn.), a member of the House Banking Committee, in a conversation with and reported by columnist Roger Simon, said that among themselves committee members referred to the savings and loan debacle as the "Train Wreck." Do you believe that George Bush, who ran the CIA, who had enough policital savvy to get himself elected President, did not see the train coming? Almost certainly he did not want the voters to know before the election that they were collectively tied to the tracks and about to be mangled by a colossus created from negligence, greed and outright criminality -- by big money in bed with politicians.

  By far the most common gambit in the heresthetic game is to silence someone who is speaking strategically unfavorable truth. William Seldman, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the federal agency that insures bank deposits, said regarding the savings and loan crisis, "fraud is a major part of the problem." He is also the government spokesman who made the $500 billion figure public. CNN reported 6/28/91 that the Bush administration tried to force him out so he could be replaced with someone who would not cause so much outrage with the voters, who would "stay on the reservation" (a Republican euphemism for always agreeing with the boss).

 Another example of heresthetic is the practice in legislatures called "mumbling." This is the intentional obfuscation of a piece of legislation by employing technical and undecipherable language, then attaching a vague and misleading summary. Practitioners of the art of mumbling tell fellow lawmakers that the legislation (1) only makes technical changes, or (2) elimates previous obsolete language. Rushed and overworked legislators then approve the legislation because they haven't the time or energy to decode it.

    Columnist Bill Boyarsky recently reported on such a "mumbled" bill, the effect of which was to nullify two different voter-initiated efforts to limit city officials to two terms in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Assemblyman Pete Chacon (D-San Diego), the mumbler who introduced the bill on behalf of the League of California Cities, an organization of mayors and city council members, claimed he was merely attempting to simplify election codes (see reason #2 above). "Lot's of times, when legislation is enacted, we don't know the consequences," he said, attempting to duck responsibility for killing the two-term initiative. State Sen. Quentin L. Kopp, whose district includes San Francisco, said the bill "was passed on consent in both houses under false colors."    

 The California desert resort spot known as the Coachella Valley, the location of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage, is a booming land development area. Home to vacationers and retirees of many different lifestyles, it is feeling the strain of burgeoning population. One area known as Sky Valley, where land is sold in five-acre parcels known as ranches and the people keep horses and other farm animals, has big city developers drooling over the artesian wells, spectacular views and cheap land prices. Many of these residents only live on their ranches in the fall, winter and spring, due to furnace-like desert conditions in the summer. Knowing this, and knowing also that these residents would fight any rezoning of Sky Valley that would threaten their chosen lifestyle, the erstwhile developers prevailed upon Riverside County officials to hold rezoning hearings in the summer in order to minimize opposition.

    This is a common heresthetic maneuver of picking the time for legal proceedings, not based upon fairness to all parties, but upon shutting out the opposition so only your side will be represented. Soon enough, Sky Valley will be wall-to-wall tract homes, with neighbors complaining about the flies and smell of the horses, thus ending the retirement dream of current residents.

 Two other categories of heresthetic that have been in constant practice since politicians were invented are gerrymandering (the rigging of voting districts to keep the incumbent in power or to shut a minority group out of having a voice in an elected body) and influence peddling (a politician sells his or her vote to a special interest for cash or favors).

    Such heresthetic acts will eventually destroy a democracy from within. The public's trust in its government, while slow to erode, will be slower to revive. Citizens are wrongfully shut out of their own government, no match for the professionals in the heresthetic maneuverings of big politics. These cynical betrayals of the public trust for the benefit of one individual or a small group to the detriment of the constituency as a whole must no longer be tolerated as perks of office in the practice of democracy.

    Citizens feel betrayed, defrauded, censored, stolen from, and cuckolded by these heresthetic acts perpetrated by elected or appointed government officials for their own personal benefit, or the personal benefit of family, cronies or political patrons.

    It was George Bush (Senior) who said, "Government should be an opportunity for public service, not private gain." However, don't read his lips. Actions speak louder than words.