Our ship of the state is on the rocks. Some errors in navigation appear below:

• Election of judges: Seemingly, election judges would be more democratic than appointing them. Honest judges are overworked, underpaid and under-appreciated, thus vulnerable to a well-funded rival in elections. If they wish to continue serving the public, they must try to avoid ruling against the interests of people in a position to fund such candidates. Sure selection of judges from a list of willing candidates assembled by their conservative peers was preferable.

• Earmarks: Earmarking allowed legislators to allocate funds within a bill itself, evading the fiscal discipline of the appropriations committee. Eliminating earmarking by House rules enables legislators to pose as sponsors of public interest laws confident that their corporate contributor’s interests will be protected by the appropriations committee.

• Presidential signing statements: Legislators often charge the executive to do the impossible. Instead of exercising his veto, the president may issue a signing statement indicating which parts of the law he will enforce, a line-item veto in disguise. Line-item vetoes have been declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in Clinton vs. State of New York. Democracy is embarrassed by such evasions of responsibility.

• Citizens United: The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot limit corporations from spending money to influence the outcome of elections. Corporations have sufficient power to drown out all other voices in the room.

• Trade pacts: Concentrating on economic unfairness in trade pacts diverts public attention from their more disastrous defects: Enforcement features allow foreign agencies to attack domestic public interest legislation as illegal restraint of trade, investor protection provisions invite participating governments to surrender their sovereignty to foreign business interests.

• Compromise: A half-hearted bill, which will like be inadequately funded, is unlikely to settle anything. Obamacare is an example.

Those steering the ship of state have insatiable appetites. Mutiny may be the only way to rescue our democracy.

John E. Gibson

Owatonna