Deranged in America

Rush Limbaugh has been busted.

No, it's not another Oxycontin charge. Or divorce filing. On Monday, Limbaugh was immortalized in bronze with a bust in the Hall of Famous Missourians at the State Capitol in Jefferson City.

This post has nothing to do with my personal feelings of Limbaugh. The man's content speaks for itself, and there's enough vitriol on the Internet already both inspired by and coming from the mouth of the radio personality, so I'll take a pass.

This post is about the way in which Limbaugh was inducted, and how it shines a light on deeper implications for our local, state and federal government and the way they do business. Monday's ceremony, according to a report from the Associated Press, was not publicized in any fashion, ostensibly to keep protesters away from the capitol. State House Speaker Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, has been pushing for Limbaugh to be inducted in recent weeks, inspiring symbolic protest from the other side of the aisle and even a measure to clarify authority of the rotunda, where Limbaugh's bust now stands among the faces of George Washington Carver, Ewing Kauffman, John J. Pershing and (perhaps the most ironic of all) Samuel Clemens.

The ceremony was private -- which is a euphemism for "keeping undesirables out" -- for the divisive (another euphemism) conservative talk show host. In his coronation (I can't really think of another noun for a ceremony where one has a statute dedicated to their remembrance) speech, Limbaugh took the opportunity to once again take potshots at his opponents, repeatedly calling them "deranged."

What is deranged, I'm afraid, is what this ceremony and the manner in which it was held says about local government. A ceremonial honor, with nothing at stake other than a few square feet in the capitol rotunda, inspired an impassioned outcry from one side of the aisle, media and public subversion by the other and bloated self-aggrandizement from the honoree. Is this the station at which representative democracy has arrived in the summer of 2012?

Let's not forget that the state legislature has been embroiled in some pretty high-profile partisan bickering over the past several months. A protracted budget battle was largely fought along party lines, and a nominally non-partisan bill designed to alter judicial appointments received flack from Democrats, who thought the measure would perpetuate a stranglehold of the state's legal elite on the composition of the state's higher courts.

What's happening in Missouri, too, is a microcosm of the partisanship exploding at the federal level. That phenomenon is well documented. Anecdotally, in my time as a public life reporter for the Columbia Missourian, I can also say a similar type of partisanship has erupted (or, at least, is being identified by members of the electorate) in nominally non-partisan local elections.

Healthy discussion, debate and conflict are necessary in a democratic system. In the American model, friction and inefficiency are built in. "As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed," Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10.

At the same time, however, it is necessary for an engaged citizenry to not only petition their representatives, but also have the faith in their neighbor that they, too, are interested in the well-being of the republic, and the best interests of the nation at whole in their hearts. De Tocqueville describes this ideal in Democracy in America:

"The New Englander is attached to his township because it is strong and independent; he has an interest in it because he shares in its management; he loves it because he has no reason to complain of his lot; he invests his ambition and his future in it; in the restricted sphere within his scope, he learns to rule society; he gets to know those formalities without which freedom can advance only through revolutions, and becoming imbued with their spirit, develops a taste for order, understands the harmony of powers, and in the end accumulates clear, practical ideas about the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights."

When one side of the aisle shuts out another for a ceremonial coronation because they believe their opinions unpopular, but exercise them anyway, we do not attain the Tocquevillian ideal. We continue down the path of partisanship that has led us to an age where the right of a human being to marry another and pursue happiness has become a politicized decision.

That, dear reader, is truly "deranged."