I knew I wasn't going to be a rocket scientist - let's not be fools - but I wasn't going to be a bum. ~ Mr. T.
Politics: American political life, despite all protestations to the contrary is not all the different from the 19th century. In fact, I could make an argument that it is much rougher.
Sure, U.S. Senators like Aaron Burr are not actually trying to kill central bankers like Alexander Hamilton, but they would be lying if it hadn’t crossed their minds recently.
As today, most Americans led lives in isolation. Then, by a sparse population attempting to tame vast stretches of wilderness. Today, by a technology-enabled existence that ensures you only hear what you wish and only see whom you like.
What is quite different is the way in which the mere mortals in Congress must meet the nearly other worldly standards of the priests and priestesses in the punditry class – especially in hotly contested swing states.
Everybody wants a “smart” Senator, I suppose. What kind of “smart” they want is more difficult to define. In political life, there are all kinds of smart, book smart, street smart, people smart. Few political figures possess a complete range.
Ronald Regan never was accused of mixing rocket fuel, but his ability to communicate values and instill pride was without peer. Jimmy Carter was without a doubt intelligent but possessing the wrong type to command of the attention of the electorate in a changing world. Before descending into seediness, Bill Clinton’s political brand was a combination of the cerebral and the visceral which remains unmatched.
The kind of “smart” that matters, ultimately, will be that which voters value which may, to some, look dumb.
Policy. How “smart” was it that George W. Bush, a well-educated man to be certain, insisted government can only be made better by “public-private partnerships” now that the pharmaceutical industry has completely swallowed its regulators?
Last week the FDA User Fee regime was extended until December 16th with the promise that policy riders would be considered then.
Perhaps that happens.
Regardless, building in the background is a challenge to the FDA’s funding mechanisms, its regulatory authority and post-Covid, its fealty to its “safety and efficacy” mission. The once revered organization is taking on water from all sides. The left, right and middle recognize the regulatory capture and condemn it for different reasons.
Not surprisingly, the agency is working to shore up its authority. Retiring Senator Richard Burr has sponsored the “VALID Act’ which would provide the FDA with authority to regulate Laboratory Developed Tests. Last week the FDA issued guidance, seemingly contrary to legislative authority, to regulate clinical decision support software as devices.
It remains to be seen, especially as questions accrue about the nearly shameless way in which the FDA has approved and then promoted Covid-19 vaccines, whether the uncritical Congressional authority will remain.
Based on the FDA’s behavior, the answer is probably no.
Power. “Smart” is due for apostacy anyway. How smart do you have to be to surrender so much to your energy generating capacity to the whims of the weather, as California has done.?
How much intellectual rigor was required for President Trump to declare “15-days to flattening the curve” ignoring the possibility a lockdown approach would be used against him and destroy a defining credit of his administration, the economy?
Why do all those PhDs at the National Institutes of Health continue to think “pandemic preparedness” means hunting down viruses in remote corners of the world and toting them back to population centers, something they endorsed (again) about two weeks ago?
The truth is “smart” as defined by church of American politics really isn’t. For most people with common sense – which is most people – it all looks rather dumb.
Have a really smart rest of your weekend.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
Twitter
LinkedIn
