I get the sense our founding fathers are rolling around in their graves as we watch the great visionary government of the people, by the people, for the people, perish on Earth before our very eyes (yes that’s a Lincoln reference and I know he is not a founding father). You don’t have to be politically astute to clearly see our system is broken. Our United States Congress, the branch of government that is supposed to most closely reflect the voice of the people, is a complete disaster. Forget the last four years, in just the last six months we’ve literally been taken over the edge of the foreboding fiscal cliff and now we are facing the challenges that come with the sequester everyone watched loom from miles away. Exactly what the hell are are we paying them to do on the hill?
If you need proof Congress nothing more than an almost Jersey Shore, dysfunctional microcosm of American society, look no further than your local communities and neighborhoods. I’d venture to say many of you, like me, live in a world where Libertarians, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and whatever elses co-exist on a daily basis and do it fairly respectfully. We get things done at work together, we collaborate in the community for things like youth sports, we set up nifty little groups like homeowner’s associations and PTA’s, heck we even all do business with each other in the good ol’ free market without the perpetual juvenile infighting we see on Capitol Hill. Our politicians do nothing but bicker and argue like second graders while the American people continue to face economic hardships, suffer the physical and emotional losses of foreign wars and stress over the ever looming uncertainty of what royal shafting Washington will deliver up next. If you and I can compromise, get along and accomplish collaborative goals on a daily basis, why can’t our representatives? Why is it Congress is so much more dysfunctional than we are in real America?
That’s because they don’t live in real America. Our politicians, as much as they try to convince us by rolling up their dress shirt sleeves and visiting small towns, don’t live in our America. Nor are they interested in living with the consequences their political decisions. This is because they get a pay check and a healthy pension whether they do their job or not. In the meantime, as long as they balk, stall, filibuster, bicker and legislate for the big businesses and high rollers that fund their campaigns, they’ll continue living above the law in their cozy upper class neighborhoods while the majority of hard working U.S. citizens do what they can to survive in the conditions of today’s America.
Fundraising for the most recent elections topped $7 billion nationwide. The average seat in Congress cost about $1.6 million dollars. It has become a bit of a joke in Washington that Congressmen are constantly in fundraising mode to keep their seat every two years. In our most recent election, 40% of incoming freshman congressmen enter their position with campaign debt. How can they possibly repay these debts and keep a constant cash flow to feed their need for power on the hill? Enter special interests and lobbyists. You see, your $15 bucks and a handwritten letter to your congressmen will likely get you a nice stock e-mail or typed letter in return, but they aren’t listening to you. Let’s say you could offer your congressmen the chance to pay down his campaign debt or offer a healthy donation in support of his next campaign? Do you think you might get his or her attention then? Of course, you’d be happy to oblige if he or she will fight like a hound for favor x, y, z. Something about this doesn’t smell right doesn’t it?
If you want to know why common sense solutions can’t be enacted to better the general welfare of our country, all you have to do is look at the money trail on both sides of the debate. Want to know how your congressmen votes? Look at his or her biggest campaign donors. I’m sorry to have to say this, but campaign spending is so out of control (hmmm, kind of like the rest of government spending????), our patriotic heroes on the hill have no choice but to enslave themselves to the special interests who keep them re-electable and keep them living the comfy lives they lead. But what about Americans like you and me? What about our problems? Do our representatives really hear our concerns? Where is our voice if we can’t write a check with lots of zeroes to the next campaign?
My fellow Americans (here I go, here’s my moment baby!), it is time to END the government of corruption, by lobbyists for special interests and return it to the hands of the American people. The only way we will make progress for folks like you and me is if we get the money and corruption out of our politics. We need our congressmen to fight for the voice of the constituents, not big businesses who are looking to only expand already ungodly profits at the expense of our great nation. Help me and the Represent Us campaign cut the ties between our government and special interests, bringing the American people one step closer to gaining our power back. Even a thousand mile journey begins with a single step and it is time for us as responsible, reasonable and concerned citizens of the United States to take our first steps towards returning our government to the hands of the people.
Please visit my Citizen Co-Sponsor Page to read about the American Anti-Corruption Act. Sign and share if you feel as passionately about empowering the American public as I do! Thanks for dropping in…
- JMB
