So, what do we think of politicians today? Are they respected? Trusted? Revered? Most commonly, the answer is, \u201cno\u201d. What happened? Being elected to office to represent your fellow citizens used to be considered a sacred post \u2013 a position of the utmost responsibility and gravity. Unfortunately, we have allowed our \u201crepresentatives\u201d to become \u201cpoliticians\u201d. The former is \u2013 and could be again \u2013 a well-respected position of limited duration to advance the common good; the latter is a craven figure slavishly devoted to a faction that provides him or her with an easy life of dubious utility bought at the low price of one\u2019s integrity and self-respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is a representative?\u00a0\u00a0It should be someone who represents the inhabitants of his or her district.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ll discuss the brazen misuse of defining districts in another essay, but suffice it to say that a \u201crepresentative\u201d should be an emissary for the hopes and needs of the electorate.\u00a0\u00a0While there were selfish, partisan politicians from the beginning of the American experiment, the goal was always to establish a nobler spirit of service in the breasts of Americans.\u00a0\u00a0The ideal was for the farmer, the small business owner, the civil servant, to lay down the plow, the ledger and the pen for a short amount of time to sacrifice for the greater good.\u00a0\u00a0Let good people walk away from their livelihood to represent their neighbors in the halls of federal power and then return \u2013 having done a great civic duty \u2013 to their regular lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At no time, was representing \u2013 serving \u2013 our fellow citizens meant to be a source of personal enrichment or a permanent career. How could politics ever be a career? It does not create anything of value or contribute to the greater weal of the nation. By allowing representatives and senators to be re-elected again and again and again condemns them to remain farther and farther from those whom they claim to represent. You would think that we would elect people who are close to the life we ourselves live so that they can convey to the National government the wants, needs, concerns, and atmospherics of our existence. Instead we continue to elect individuals who have not experienced \u201creal life\u201d for years and decades. They deign to pretend they are \u201cmen of the people\u201d for a short campaigning season and then fall back into their partisan careers, ignoring the plight of their constituents in favor of their party\u2019s selfish goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have senators who began their federal career in 1981. We have congressmen who were first elected in 1973. To give some perspective, in 1981, Ronald Reagan took office, Brittany Spears was born and Metallica was formed. In 1973, Richard Nixon began his second term, Lyndon B. Johnson died, and the Vietnam War ended. Think about that. We have senators and representatives who have done nothing else except campaign for office since the end of the Vietnam War. What do they really know about the people they claim to represent? They may be masters of the arcane business of Washington politics, but they have no idea of how their constituents live and work or what they hope for and dream. How can they? They\u2019ve insulated themselves from real life for longer than the median age of the American population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A member of the House of Representatives serves a two-year term.\u00a0\u00a0Today, the campaigning season begins at least a year out from the date of the election.\u00a0\u00a0That means that a Congressman only serves half of his or her term \u2013 at best – representing their district, and the rest of time campaigning to be re-elected.\u00a0\u00a0So, we are really electing members of Congress to work for us for one year, while paying them for two.\u00a0\u00a0Senators have a six-year term in office.\u00a0\u00a0You may say we get more bang for our buck out of a Senator since they can presumably concentrate on their job for five years out of six.\u00a0\u00a0The President uses only 75% of his time in office looking after the public good \u2013 if that was his intent to begin with \u2013 before abandoning his mandate and hitting the campaign trail.\u00a0\u00a0At public expense, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So how do we do save these career politicians from themselves? How do we provide them with the opportunities to again (or for the first time) become useful members of society? There are two ways. The first that we can do right away is to refuse to vote for incumbents. Thank them for their service, but tell them to move on at the ballot box. As a general rule, I try not to vote for someone who has already fulfilled their self-called duty to be a representative of the people. The second \u2013 and most resisted way \u2013 is to call for legislation that codifies term limits into law. Of course, the people who make the laws are the ones who would have to vote for term limits for themselves. What a paradoxical conundrum! Vote for a law that would limit your time in office for the good of the nation! That\u2019s the obstacle that we, as common American citizens face. We\u2019ve allowed politicians to make representation a lifetime career and given them the power to rig the system to keep them in power forever. The only way to change this and give the government back to the people is to vote incumbents out and vote in representatives that pledge to enact term limit legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, the lack of term limits is not the only way that career politicians rig the system. In a future essay, we\u2019ll explore the arcane science of gerrymandering and the evils of unrestricted campaign financing. Until then, remember that we have a window to hold our representatives accountable \u2013 when they deign to leave their cloistered halls of power and beg for our vote. Do not throw away your vote to partisan or career politicians!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, what do we think of politicians today? Are they respected? Trusted? Revered? Most commonly, the answer is, \u201cno\u201d. What happened? Being elected to office to represent your fellow citizens used to be considered a sacred post \u2013 a position of the utmost responsibility and gravity. Unfortunately, we have allowed our \u201crepresentatives\u201d to become \u201cpoliticians\u201d. The former is \u2013 and could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2181","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"scubafuss@aol.com","author_link":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/author\/scubafussaol-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"So, what do we think of politicians today? Are they respected? Trusted? Revered? Most commonly, the answer is, \u201cno\u201d. What happened? Being elected to office to represent your fellow citizens used to be considered a sacred post \u2013 a position of the utmost responsibility and gravity. Unfortunately, we have allowed our \u201crepresentatives\u201d to become \u201cpoliticians\u201d. The former is \u2013 and could…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2220,"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2181\/revisions\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filiipublii.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}