"Of the people, by the people, for the people..." Gettysburg Address, A. Lincoln
The United States was founded as a democratic republic with the idea being a citizen government, representatives to be elected by the people. The idea, I believe, was that representatives would be chosen from the more successful among the people to serve for a short time,do their duty for God and country and step down. Go home with the thanks of their country. And nothing more. Nothing more! Not a free ride for the rest of their lives. Not a government pension. Not a team of Secret Service bodyguards. And certainly not a burden on their country. Too damn bad it didn’t work.
I think it was probably a laudable idea,at least in the beginning, but as we all know, things change over time and our citizen representatives ‘evolved’ (such an interesting word) into what has become a ‘political class’…citizens who view politics as a profession. Citizens who become wealthy at the expense of those who honored them by electing them to public office. Citizens like the venerable Jerry Ford. A modest man who, as a public servant in Congress, never earned more than $40,000. per annum, yet after serving (unelected) as President for three years,was able to retire as a multi-millionaire. Oh, he didn’t amass a lot of millions,only three or four because,at heart, I believe, he was not a greedy man,but it does raise questions.
Only about 12% of the American people believe that Congress is doing a good job in their representation which means that at least 88% evidently believe all our Congressmen are corrupt. It is my sincere belief that not all of our public servants are corrupt but enough of them so that 88% of us have grown jaded and cynical about all politicians, republican, democrat, independents, ad infinitum.
We live in interesting times, an aphorism if there ever was one, and today, we are given another chance at re-forming our government,taking back as some of our GOP wanna-be’s are phrasing it, becoming once again a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
The cynic in me tells me that it ain’t ever gonna happen, folks. The entrenched political bureaucracy ain’t gonna give up. They’re going to fight like the very Devil to keep their political position, their power, their place at the trough. All because,as a nation, we’ve become too complacent,too lazy,too involved with our own pursuits,our everyday lives and allowed this professional class to become a political bureaucracy and, as we all know, once a bureaucracy is formed, its main focus is on maintaining that bureaucracy.
We shouldn’t make any mistakes about our Congresspeople. They are the creme de la creme, rising to the very pinnacle of their profession by being the meanest darn sharks in the pool,taking a back seat to nobody as they climb that political ladder. And once there, they ain’t gonna give it up easily.
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” George Orwell
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