Even though we are a democracy, our government was designed to defy any democratic impulses that could sweep through society.

After listening to campaigns full of promises, the people get fired up for action and then nothing much happens. Disappointed, they curse the incumbent and go searching for another Pied Piper with better promises. But those promises are equally useless.

The Founding Fathers stuck us with a system of government that has barely kept the United States afloat for two centuries.

Preventing Good

As I have often repeated, Alexander Hamilton put his finger on it when he declared in a Federalist Paper that the constitutional design of checks and balances combined with federalism prevents anything bad from happening but it also prevents anything good from happening.

The system is full of veto points under checks and balances. The naysayers have the advantage because of the pitfalls – lack public consensus, unresponsive legislative bodies, partisan politics, intransigent beneficiaries of the present, intervention of money, to name a few.

Terminal Inaction

Just because the United States has survived doesn’t mean that fate promises never-ending glory. Because the government is shackled to a society of the past, we are not going to respond to crises in the future when inaction may be terminal.

Because of its frontier heritage, North Dakota is even more “status quo” than other states or the federal government. Indicative of this can be found in the large legislature,12 elected officials, 120 committees, semi-autonomous agencies and numerous locally-elected officials.

Actually, after a well-intentioned governor has high hopes for new directions, he/she finds that close to 90% of the courses of governing has been pre-empted and can’t be changed without a two-thirds consensus.

Killing Change

The new constitution proposed by the 1970-72 convention had a number of progressive changes, approved by 90% of the delegates, that were chewed up and defeated because significant changes cannot occur in our political culture.

So here comes a crisis that our system will not withstand: global warming. There are too many political problems that cannot be overcome in a checks and balances system.

Right up front, the gap between Republicans and Democrats must be closed – a bipartisan effort will be necessary but impossible to achieve.

Then there is the intervention of money. The energy industries and others profiting from the status quo will pour billions into campaigns to kill the activities intended to stop global warming. Money has always been an influence in American decision-making.

Public Ignorance

The politicians and money will feed on the ignorance of a public that can’t comprehend the time dimensions involved. Will a majority of the people sacrifice in the present for the benefit of the future? We have never had that foresight in the United States.

We can mouth support for future generations – the grandkids, greater grandkids, and greater grand grand grandkids – but when push comes to shove, we abdicate. In North Dakota, we can’t muster the courage to use the Legacy Fund to help school children. Tax cuts are preferred.

Public expenditures to stop global warming will be staggering. The political will for higher taxes has never been in our DNA. And to take today’s income for a problem 50 years down the road will look ridiculous to uninformed people.

Our democracy has not demonstrated that it can reach across the generations or that it can overcome the inertia that will destroy us.

Lloyd Omdahl is a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota and former political science professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.