Leaving the party

I was a Democrat once. And a Republican. These days, I'm independent; "unenrolled" is the official term.

A few years back, during a conversation with a registered Republican, I told him that I changed my party affiliation to unenrolled. He replied, "You never leave the party."

Recently, I was reminded of this when our now former-state repsentative Matthew Patrick said in his farewell speech, "The unwritten understanding here in the House is to never speak badly of the institution. We don't want to damage its standing with the public by being openly critical of it. But we must face facts...The Massachusetts House is now deeply wounded in the public eye. Its reputation is at an all-time low. The institution has suffered three major broadsides in the 10 years that I have been in office."

There seems to be a lot of this in government - the desire to protect government. It's as though once our "representatives" are elected, they cease to represent we, the people, and begin to represent the institution to which they belong. Whether it is the local, state or federal level, those who try to change government from within are often viewed negatively and treated as outcasts.

Indeed, I've experienced that first-hand.

As Mr. Patrick noted, protecting government because we don't want to sully the reputation of the institution has the opposite effect. It's not the scandal, but the cover-up which does the damage. We are human, and most folks will accept a sincere apology for an honest mistake. Unfortunately, and for reasons for which I can only speculate, too many politicians try to cover their tracks and hope the scandal goes away. In the process, they destroy their credibility and that of the institution they are trying to protect.

Party politics makes exacerbates this problem, as each of the two major parties tries to gain advantage over the other.

Mr. Patrick went on to say, "Now is the time to make a change." I disagree. The time to make a change is before government's reputation has been sullied. Push for change. Challenge the status quo. Leave the party. The reputation of the institution - be it a local board, the General Court, or Congress - is not nearly as important as the people's faith in our government as a whole.