Received my most positive feedback from the 11/24 blog “OWS and Why We need It,” but interestingly enough I also got a great deal of negative feedback over my suggestion that one of the cures for our problems was one or a series of national referendums to adjust our governmental structure to the needs of this century and its populace.
It was quickly and correctly pointed out that governance by referendum has almost ruined California and I take full responsibility for not giving a more detailed explanation of my theory. My concept was not for governance by national referendum. Anyone who has observed the process is fully aware that the population of this country is neither well enough informed nor expressive of significant enough interest to make such an ongoing process work. All you have to do is check our voter turnout figures which are the lowest in the civilized world to know such a concept would be far worse than what we currently have. What I had in mind was, as stated above, a single or a small series of referendums that would realign the government through the amending of the constitution, so that it would better serve the needs and rights of the public. I make this suggestion because it has become abundantly clear that congress has neither the will nor the incentive to legislate for the good of the population in general.
Why do I say this? How about observation? All you’ve got to do is watch what isn’t accomplished in the halls of congress and you realize that our current legislators have no incentive to get the job done. Unfortunately the much-considered option of replacing them all, won’t work. This was proved by the pathetic gaggle of new house members elected by the Tea Party in 2010 that almost
without exception have turned out to be non-functional boobs.
Which leaves us in the position of depending on these morons to supply the legislation that is needed to get the country back on line. But the passing of such legislation will be, in many cases, to the direct detriment of most of the currently sitting legislators. Why? Because it would take away benefits and powers that are the core of why people run for congress. In case you haven’t noticed being a congressmen is a very lucrative job, both during its tenure and even more so after. A sitting congressman collects a higher than average salary, about $175K per year. On top of that he is constantly bombarded by all sorts of perks provided by the lobbyists for every corporation and organization that wants that congressman’s favorable vote on its suit.
When I printed earlier this year that big oil spent hundreds of millions of dollars to promote their position, where did you think that money went? Well, most of it went to members of congress and their re-election campaigns. That same number is repeated by every organization that has an agenda up for legislation. We’re talking billions divided by 525 members of congress. Not a bad payday. And when they retire or are voted out of office, what do congressmen do? They become lobbyists for the same companies who paid lobbyists to influence them. That’s when they really get the big bucks.
Now considering this, why would any congressman vote to prohibit the practice of lobbying? They wouldn’t. Yet that practice is probably the greatest impairment to the democratic system extent and should be the first or second target of a referendum.
A perfect example of how this system works is the Keystone XL Pipeline. Everyone who has looked at this project with anything like a dispassionate eye has concluded that it is a disaster. It will not, despite the claims of the lobbyists and John Boehner create jobs, because work on the pipeline will be done by men who are already employees of TransCanada. In fact in the long run it will cost jobs because by allowing the oil to ne piped through the US to ports in Texas it will open new markets in China and India to the oil companies that had previously only had the US as a market. These competing markets will raise the cost of oil to us, raising prices on gas and costing us jobs because of those increased prices.
In addition the pipeline is planned to go through ecologically sensitive areas with the probability that any rupture would poison a significant portion of our mid-western water supply. TransCanada’s other pipeline, only a little over a year old, has already had a major rupture. Then there are oil sands, the source of the pipelines oil. Oil sands are the dirtiest, most ecologically damaging form of oil and therefore by themselves a huge threat to the ecology of the world. All in all there is no reasonable way this project can be considered a plus. In fact it is a true horror, bad for our country in so many ways that no logical, honest legislator would even consider it. Yet there it is, supported by any number of our so-called legislators. Why? The almighty buck produced by lobbyists for the financial welfare of our elected officials, prodded by the degenerate lobbyists who work their butts off to subvert the democratic system for the benefit of big business and themselves.
If you expect these congressmen, who benefit so greatly from it, to vote against this system, which works so well to their benefit but not to ours, you are delusional. The only way to fix this system is to take the vote out of their hands and put it where it belongs, in the hands of the individual voters who make up the citizenry of the United States. The intention of the founders has been subverted to an extent that we can no longer depend on those we elect to carry out programs that benefit the people. They seem to be interested only in those programs that benefit themselves so we must take back that which we have given them and decide for ourselves how we wish the country to be governed. That act can be accomplished through a national referendum. We the people must provide a list of constitutional changes that must be made so that our errant legislators will have a new set of guidelines and be regulated by a new set of rules that will help them toe the lines of ethics and morality that have all but disappeared in today’s self-motivated society.
Let’s face it folks, the curse of Any Rand is upon us. We have become a society where everyone thinks and acts only in their own self-interest with no thought of how they can help society or the general citizenry. This is especially seen in those giants of industry and banking who no longer worry about making a competing product or providing a necessary service but only about how much they can acquire for themselves, how many more yachts they can buy and how many castles they can construct. True a select few are above this, seeing the need for them to use their wealth judiciously, understanding the fact that with great wealth comes great responsibility and rising to the challenge, but they are only a select few, far to few among the legion of the wealthy whose greed knows only one command… MORE!
If we are to continue to succeed as a nation, those greedy few must be brought to heel. They must be stopped from using their wealth to destroy the principles of democracy and since they have already undermined the current system to the point that meaningful legislation can no longer be passed by our governing bodies, it behooves us to take the torch of liberty in our hands and use it to lead us to a new and meaningful source of legislation. It’s time to make big changes in the way things are done around here.