Encore piece – with some modification.
In the 1992 Bill Clinton has a slogun – “It’s the Economy Stupid!” It was a reminder that President George H. Bush had forgotten the economy. While the Democrats will have you believe that the economy is the big issue today and the Republicans want you to focus on security, neither is focusing on the single most critical problem we face today – partisan politics. Today our government is so badly divided along partisan lines that it simply cannot function – the members are unable to work together or work with the President and the President with them.
One thing we do as an electorate is to return the Congressional incumbent to office at an astounding rate. It is above 90% – higher in the House of Representatives than in the Senate. This is not totally our fault, since Congress has structured rules and policies to promote reelection and to make it hard for a challenger to replace the incumbent. While this misuse in stacking the odds is unfair, both parties embrace these slanted rules fostering incumbent reelection.
Further we have been electing an increasing number of Representatives and Senators who are found to be wanting in the ethics arena. Well why do we, the electorate, keep re-electing our Senators and Representatives at such an alarming rate and expect Congress to run differently? Recent polls show a Congressional approval rating in the range of 18% to 26%. Only one out of every five of us are happy with Congress, yet the other four of us, 80%, routinely reelect the incumbent over 90% or the time to a Congress we don’t like. Again, is this clear thinking. Clearly the state of Congress is our fault. We can fix this!
The big catchword of the current presidential campaigns is CHANGE! Do we really believe that changing one person – the President – will bring about all the change we are seeking? If we send the incumbents back to Congress will we have changed anything? NO! By voting for the challenger in each and every election where there is an incumbent running, we will successfully change 435 Representatives and 33 Senators. Would not replacing 468 members of Congress (87%) be real meaningful change? We would have new committee chairs, seniority would be negated allowing fewer Congressional leaders to wield disproportionate manipulative power, and old favors would not have to be repaid with votes. It would send a message the likes of which has not been heard before in this nation or for that matter the world.
Vote for The Real Change – Change Congress!
2 responses so far ↓
MZJ // March 18, 2008 at 7:08 AM |
How do the American people go about getting term limitations in place?
Kenneth Moyes // March 18, 2008 at 9:05 AM |
Since the Constitution provides for the eligibility of Senators and Congressional Representatives and their respective terms, there are two way to institute term limits. First, a Constitutional amendment must be passed and this can be done by convention of the States or through Congress – Congress will never limit themselves with term limits. Second, (this is the easier method) vote the incumbent out of office.