The United States was born in a time of idealism, and “we” incorporated many ideals into our structure of distributed governance within which power is distributed across centers of responsibility: executive, legislative and judicial. Ostensibly, the legislative center is the most powerful because it represents the people, not the government. That’s a critical distinction: the EXECUTIVE and associated departments thereof, is the government; the REPRESENTATIVE LEGISLATURE (House and Senate) represent the people and the states, respectively, TO the government. In other words, the legislative “branch” is not technically part of the government. It exists to reign in the government and to make certain that the executive branch is conducting business AS THE PEOPLE WANT it done.
Unfortunately, but ideally, the system depends upon honest executives and honest representatives, and that means widespread sharing of a moral code, never a perfect circumstance, and much less so today than ever in our short history. The trouble with dishonest representatives is that they quickly figured out that they can vote themselves riches from the federal treasury. Taking more money required new justifications, mostly comprised of establishing one’s own importance and unique abilities to act as our representative. Senators started out very differently than representatives, and much differently than they claim to be today.
Senators started out being chosen by the legislators in their respective states, based on the concept of states being somewhat sovereign and deserving of their own representation, specifically separately from citizens, themselves. That is, states’ interests deserved to be watched out for, essentially to keep the federal government from encroaching on states’ rights and authority, which was a good thing for states to do. It didn’t take too many decades before legislatures demonstrated their inability to agree on who to send to Washington, particularly in the run up to The (second) Civil War. By 1900 vacancies in the Senate were common and years long. Voters were really irked.
Finally, in 1913, the 17th Amendment was passed providing for direct election of senators, as there had always been for representatives. “More democracy” always sounds good, despite its own spotty record, and there has rarely been a senatorial vacancy since then. The upshot of direct election is that Senators, with their 6-year terms, are now simply more important “representatives,” who may or may NOT represent the interests of their state, and the Senate is the favored way for the lucky Representative to feather his or her retirement. It’s a nice, cushy job with few responsibilities. Senators don’t have to answer for every vote, and have found that they can depend on voters’ forgetfulness, while they campaign for re-election in the sixth year of their terms. Those unlucky Reps have to campaign every other year, if not more, with voters remembering more of what they promised and have done in the first half of their terms.
Still, one of the bright marks of the failure of our ideal system is the 95% re-election rate for our “elected” representatives. Along with voting themselves (automatically!) increasing amounts of pay, Reps and Senators take part in the finest health care and pension programs in the country. And, they have monstrous staff and support agencies who barely enable the two houses of Congress to get their work done! The work burden is unimaginable. There’s plenty of vacation time to provide relief from those burdens and to allow for basic mental health, there’s so much stress.
There’s so much stress, in fact, that basic work required by the Constitution and the by the citizens who send these sacrificial men and women to Washington to reign in the government on their behalf, often gets rushed through if done at all… stuff like an annual budget, for example. Not that it must be annual; the constitution says “…from time to time.” With all the stress noted, bi-annual budgeting would be perfectly useful IF, and only IF the Congress published a “…regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money… from time to time.” Other burdens not listed in the Constitution are preventing this requirement from being fulfilled. What a load… these public servants bear.
Now that the financial underpinnings of representatives and senators are firmly in place, and now that most of those same are likewise firmly in place, we find that members of Congress are mostly representing the GOVERNMENT to US, not us to the government. If you, the employer of these elected bureaucratic swells, ever attend a meeting where one is speaking – maybe even a “Town Hall,” – you’ll find the discussion one of why things that their employers (you) want done by the “government” can’t or won’t get done. Then you begin to recognize that our “representatives” are anything but… unless money is going to enrich a favorable someone in the district or state. Then it’s full steam ahead.
You may also realize that the language of Congress is not freedom, justice or Prudence, it’s power. Oh the money is nice, and all the trappings and perks, they’re okay. If a congressperson is able to take sufficient advantage of his or her influence over public monies to become wealthy during his or her decades of sacrifice, who really cares? But when talking power, there are but two potent factors: re-election and avoiding blame. For these things it is crucial that voters vote at least twice: once with their checkbooks and at least once at the ballot box. Indeed, public service has become so service-oriented that if voting at the ballot box is too great a burden for you, why friends of the congressperson will do it for you! And if there are citizens too infirm, confused or temporarily deceased, why they’ll make sure that voting isn’t burdensome on them, either. Re-election, step one precedes all things.
Step two, also an unending step, avoiding blame for much of anything, requires careful cultivation of scapegoats, but not just any scapegoat, he, she or they – especially “they” – must be plausibly portrayed as directly responsible (blame-worthy), probably responsible (blame-worthy), responsible for someone who made the mistake (blame-worthy), part of a group that has historically been responsible for a history of mistakes (blame-worthy). It’s simple, but requires a number of staff to keep abreast of. So, do you get it? Re-election and avoiding blame… re-election and avoiding blame. One need not be a genius to run or win for congress; just understand two principles. The rest of us are left to deal with honesty, honor, duty, tolerance, charity, courage, wisdom, thrift, family, service to others and Prudence. There is a point to this disparity of lifestyles.
The principles of purposeful citizenship in the United States are a burden that Americans gladly accept… at least they do if educated and prepared to do so. But they are easily set aside amidst a land of plenty, including plenty of diversions. Unless we are constantly reminded or constantly remind ourselves of our exceptional responsibility in the world, the principles and responsibilities with which we are charged as U. S. citizens can be forgotten, as will our unique place in the firmament of mankind.
In other words, “America,” the ideas that created and sustain her, can be lost in a single generation. Unfortunately our elected representatives, given their disconnectedness from the exigencies of real life and utter concentration upon the two factors outlined earlier, seem to forget the longer list of principles that must be upheld by citizens who remain the strength of our nation. First of these to become foggy, slipping into haze and irresolution once re-election is achieved that first time, is honesty. This no longer means lying about what one believes or does, something that can be ferreted out with evidence and records; now it means being afraid to tell the truth about what one does believe!
Now, we need courage in order to exercise honesty. Americans have been lied-to for decades… by people who promised to “fight” for us once in office. What does such a “fight” consist of, one wonders? Does he or she, candidate to represent US, promise to tell the truth about, say, the budget? Will he or she promise to read and understand every bill that comes to the floor?
Will he or she promise to fight against any bill that includes items unrelated to the purported title and subject of the bill? Will he or she insist on budget, and therefore, policy approval, for every titled agency and program in the Executive branch? You’ll be able to judge where to give your vote if the answer to any of these questions is some mealy-mouthed explanation of why things can’t be done as we ask.
The Courage to be Honest with voters – what a concept. Maybe there’s hope for Charity (with their own money, not our great grandchildren’s), Wisdom and Thrift. Thrift would mean reducing the profligate federal budget, something that must be done as part of Honesty. Of course, they’d have to become conversant with the budget in the first place, and not simply enough to blame one another for wrong-headed spending. The federal budget is essentially a Trillion dollars out of balance. Ask any rep or senator you have a chance to meet if he or she is going to fight to cut spending? Will he or she fight to prevent raising the “debt ceiling,” so called? Honesty requires an answer, doesn’t it?
Will your representative and senators represent us with Honor? No sly side-agreements that do not serve their constituents FIRST? No personal aggrandizement through any piece of legislation? Honesty would demand proper response to these questions. Who, after all, is at the top of our system? The government? “Brrraaaap!” You’re out.
We are at the top. We are sovereign citizens who have ceded LIMITED power and authority to the federal and state governments, and to municipal governments; all other rights, powers and freedoms belong to each of us as sovereign individuals who possess unalienable rights. Don’t you forget this. People in government are there to serve us and protect us and our private properties – including our rights: private properties we are born with.
Our success as a self-governing people can be measured only by how much SMALLER we can render our governments, not by how much larger. Ask your rep and senatorial candidates if they will fight to make government smaller. Good luck.