There are two lessons that come to mind. One is that we are all sinners. And two is that we will be treated by people on the way down in a manner similar to how we treat people on the way up, unless mitigating circumstances mitigate.
Why do we elevate some as if they are different from the many? Is it because we are afraid to rely on ourselves? Why do we languish power and glory on a few even though they fail as do we all? Who came up with this idea of representative democracy? Does it still work as the founders intended?
In a democracy power comes from and is given by the people. We all know that. Ask any Chicagoan and they will tell you that it is so. The people giveth; the people taketh. There is no such thing as embedded power. It can be removed at any time. It happens all the time. For example, Johnny Reid Edwards was the elected senator of North Carolina. He wanted more. He embraced the message of the poor and the downtrodden in order to get more. When he took his show on the road it went caput. Was this the result of the wisdom of the people? Or the failure of the man? Another fellow tapped his shoe in the toilet stall, supposedly, and he inherited the wind. He was discovered by the toilet stall police. One other fellow, well really quite a few, went around grabbing and groping and he/they found a similar result. But then another fellow discovered a pleasurable way to pass time in his egg shaped office with his pants around his ankles and he still prances around with great accolades as does his “stand by your man” woman. One fellow was out hiking; well he was hiking somewhere writing sweet nothings for later publication. Last week we discovered that another one of these fellows, when not engaged in promoting his voluminous health care plan, promoted his paramour for a major government assignment. What? She was qualified so he says. Oh. Well that sure makes it OK.
Have you noticed how silly they all look? Or is it the people who put them there that look silly?
What can we learn from these men with their feet of clay? Why do we pay them to represent us and they use the power and position to act like high school Lotharios? What can we do?
Perhaps nothing more than this: Term Limits. The Term Limit amendment to the US Constitution should contain the following ingredients:
- Limit on cumulative elected tenure in federal position; twelve years would make sense
- Not eligible if you have ever received or intend to receive any form of payment from any form of special interest group
- No pension accrual for any time in elected office. Let's get the service concept back in "public service"
2 comments:
I think Chicago is a poor example. If you were born on April 20, 1955, you would have had a Daley as mayor for 76% of your life of 54 years.
I also don't see what having a girl friend or paramour has to do with term limits.
Term limits is a bad idea. Usually the party out of power likes it, but loses interest when the scales tip. We have already seen that. Term limits vest even more power in staff members. The politicians come and go, but unelected staff is forever. If someone does not like his alderman, mayor, state representative, state senator, congressman, senator, governor or President, vote against him or her. Why take my right to vote for the person I like away from me by placing an arbitrary deadline on the term. If I like Nancy Pelosi or Orin Hatch and I live in San Francisco or Utah, why should my right to vote for them be taken away.
By and large I personally am in favor of term limits. After the extended reign of FDR, Congress was able to limit the presidency to two elected terms. One shudders to think of how long Bill Clinton might have stayed in office had he been able. Ditto BushII and the current resident. 'Tis a pity indeed that today's popinjays have not the wisdom and restraint of our 1st president, who set the precedent for two terms.
However, the danger of term limits is the growth then of the bureaucracy. Those in D.C. who have lifetime jobs become more indispensable, since they are the ones who know how everything works, and they will have no fear of those in office, since they know they will soon be gone. Likewise, new office takers would be soft putty for the entrenched bureaucracy because they would have a long and difficult learning curve.Clearly, the entrenched bureaucracy would have to be curtailed somehow. One method would be severe penalties for crimes such as bribery, malfeasance, theft, etc. These penalties should also be extended to elected officials. While it may sound extreme, I would favor a death penalty for corrupt officials, elected or not, who are convicteed of such crimes.Not only would this give a pause to those betraying the public trust, but it would ease the burden of the pension system off the taxpayers' backs!
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