Recent events have again brought to the forefront the recurring theme that our politicians refuse to work for the people. They suffer from some or all of the following. Being inept, unintelligent, dishonest, disconnected and/or leaderless.
The question remains though who is to blame for their inability to work in the best interest for the people. Is it the American people who continue to vote in the same clowns spouting the same rhetorical B.S. year after year or is it the political system as a whole that puts the interest of lobbyist and campaign contributors in the top slot for the politician's concern. I say the answer is both.
First, the American people seem more concerned with what the latest contestant of American Idol thinks than what their politicians think. They're more concerned with how their favorite sports team is performing rather than how their government is performing. They're more concerned with what is the most immediately gratifying versus what is our best long term interest. So we vote based on issues we are ignorant on and for politicians that give us immediately what we desire. A question to probe at a later time is what we desire our politicians to be. Should they truly represent us in all our uninterested and ignorant glory or should they LEAD us looking more at the future consequences of their decisions rather than what the latest skewed poll says we want them to do.
Second, books upon books have been written about what is wrong with Washington. So I shall only touch upon a few of the issues that I consider to be the most egregious.
Campaign contributions - the American people pay the politicians salaries, but big business and lobbyist pay to get them elected. So if getting elected guarantees you get the paycheck then who do you think the politicians care the most about. As long as we allow businesses and wealthy individuals to back the politician that best serves their interest we'll never get a politician that serves our interest. I believe all campaigns should be paid out of taxed money. Expensive you say, well consider how much money is given away and policies put in place that benefit the current campaign contributors. The best thing about taxed campaign financing is that we the people decide how much these clowns spend on their campaigns. Also, when the election is decided by who has the best policies rather than the most money we'll get the best the person for the job.
Earmarks and grants - We seem to forget that these guys are spending OUR money. So every time you see an earmark or grant that goes to benefit a road program for lets say Houston TX that program is being paid by the taxes of all 50 states. So the local or state population elects their US congressman and that congressman then earmarks all of our money into his local economy. Now take that problem and multiply it numerous times for all of the congressman trying to get in the good graces of their voters. How much of our tax dollars are being spread through out the US on projects we did not vote on or approve. I got a novel idea. If you want to better your local community use your own money.
No line item veto - Refer to the above earmark section. Give the president the power to look past the pork and cut it from legislation. Once it is vetoed it can go back to congress and they can vote on that measure individually. This forces each congressman to be put on the record that they voted on wasteful spending and they can't hide behind the good intentions of the original bill to justify their vote.
Keeping these items in mind we need to change our ways and I mean all of us. No more uninterested and uninformed voters. Also we need to change how Washington is fundamentally ran so we get the best people doing the job working for the people that voted them in place. Change is coming and I hope it's a change for the better.
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