Throw All the Bums Out!

The Politico is reporting on a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll:

"Only 17 percent approve of how lawmakers on Capitol Hill are doing their jobs. Given the choice, half of respondents say they would vote to defeat every single member of Congress, including their own representative."


When you think about it, that may be the only way to get the attention of Congress and the Administration and regain control of our government. Certainly turning out the occasional Tom Foley or Eric Massa hasn't worked in favor of the citizenry. In Third World countries they speak of "traditional politicians" with disgust. What we clearly have developed in the United States is a class of professional politicians, the traditional politicians of the Third World, who use a system that they have developed to enrich themselves and their friends. It's time, past time, to end the era of professionals who have most unprofessionally taken our country to the brink of bankruptcy and reassert control of the government by the people.

We can do this if, for the next 6 years, we reject every politician who runs for re-election and dismantle the profitable pay and retirement system that Congress established for themselves. Congress should, of course, be paid well but they should not look forward to a retirement based on largess controlled by their past, present or future peers.

Some favor term limits to ensure that elected representatives do not become the traditional politicians that are our bane. Others say that each election is, in itself, a term limit. I favor the term limits approach as it has served us well with the Presidency. The exposure to the raw power of government in Washington, DC, has shown that it can taint even the most idealistic of newcomers to the political arena. What we have "serving" us in Washington now is a political elite that is completely divorced from the actual will of the people. They govern and stay in power by blithely lying about their intentions or what they have done, saying or promising anything that the voters want to hear and using economic bribery in the form of pork barrel legislation to ensure their own continued personal power. They are no longer serving the people but instead are serving their own political careers.

It's past time to end the idea of political careers. No politician should be able to quit his or her day job and never look back when they go to Washington. They should always remember that their time in Washington is only temporary and that soon they will be back on the outside looking in just like the rest of the citizens. Then and only then will we have politicians who will work for the limited government that the Founders visualized. Then and only then will our freedoms be secure from assaults from within that are every bit as dangerous, yet more insidious, than those from enemies outside our borders.

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