Take Back Your Power

I am writing this because I am appalled at the forces tearing this country apart. For one thing, there is the fierce partisanship between the two major parties, as well as between our elected representatives in Washington. Mendacity and anger fill the air and poison our ability to communicate with each other, creating distrust and alienation. Our elected officials seem to be out of touch with our needs, and worse yet, not even interested in hearing our input. Besides that, too many of them have become overly self-serving, forgetting why they were elected to office in the first place.

No one wants to take responsibility any more for their mistakes. It always has to be someone else’s fault. We all must recognize that a country divided against itself cannot stand, just like a house cannot stand.

This state of affairs has got to stop, and only the American electorate can make that happen. Otherwise, we are headed for a serious fall.

The American electorate has foolishly given its power away to our politicians, some of whom are corrupt and many of whom are plain avaricious. We expect that they somehow know what is best for us. Why would anyone expect such wisdom from a bunch of self-serving people? They are there by our permission to serve our needs, but they too often behave as if they have some divine right to do as they please and ignore us.

We nervously pray that these same politicians are really looking out for us, or at the least, not harming us. With each election, we pray that the one we choose to send to Congress or to the White House will honestly work on our behalf. And you know what? Your elected officials by and large are praying, too … praying that you won’t notice his or her outright betrayal of your best interests; that you will continue on remaining ignorant and inattentive.

We are the people, and the American government is charged with representing our interests, not anyone else’s. The Constitution does not start out by stating, “[w]e the wealthy corporations of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, …”. Rather, it states: “[w]e the People of the United States, in order to …”. We have every right to expect that our interests are being served, not the interests of others that work to our detriment, or the interests of illegal people who should not be here.

But many of our elected representatives do harm us. Witness the recent economic debacle. First off, we are suffering because of deregulation, the worst idea ever dreamt up by negligent politicians. No one is watching the banking industry, the airline industry, or Wall Street. And for sure, under these circumstances, no one is watching out for you and me.

On top of that open wound, Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told us just two short months ago that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were financially sound. Nothing to worry about from that quarter. We all now know the truth.

What about Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate finance committee, who accepted a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Credit before that entity sunk into a black hole?

When executives at big investment houses such as Merrill Lynch and Lehman Bros. badly mismanage their companies and walk off with golden parachutes, leaving their stockholders and investors to suffer, and Congress votes to throw more billions of dollars at them, as if rewarding them for bad management, is that not misuse and abuse of our tax dollars, the dollars we work hard for to send to the government? And to add insult to injury, the President and the Congress want to give those same executives our tax dollars without any oversight, and without putting into place stricter rules and regulations as to the management of those companies. Does betrayal get any more egregious than that?

How about our government allowing the importation of foreigners in order to take our jobs away? Not only that, our government gives more rights and privileges to illegal persons in this country than to us. They can go and get free medical services at our hospitals, take our jobs away, and burden our school systems and social services. If you and I walk into any hospital and ask for free medical attention, guess what happens?

And we have to pay for all those services.

When the President of the United States has the gall to look right into the tv camera and say that there is nothing he can do about the people streaming illegally into this country, he is lying to you. And when he goes on to state that they are only working at jobs Americans refuse to do, he is pouring salt into your open wound.

If we do not demand our rights and exercise our power, as we have a right to do, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when we sink down into third-world status, or possibly even get taken over by some foreign government.

Democracy is dying in this country, and attention needs to be paid. One reason it is dying, although not the only one, is because of well-funded, very powerful lobbyists who have easy access to our elected officials. They ply these officials with money and gifts while you and I go unheard and unheeded. Such a situation amounts to bribery, and when legislation is enacted on that basis, democracy dies. And helping to shovel it into an early grave are corrupt politicians, dishonest politicians, avaricious politicians; along with too many children graduating from school who do not even know how to read and write properly, and who do not know our history or how our government operates; and very definitely too many of us who sit on our hands and grumble.

We are not paying attention as we should, but are too involved with our own lives and problems to be bothered. But we need to be bothered, to wake up and take notice, because otherwise, for sure, we are going to lose this wonderful country.

You may ask, “What am I suppose to do?” You could send faxes and e-mails, and better yet, call your Congressperson and Senator at least once a week and voice your opinions.

A better suggestion would be for groups of Americans to get together in their own neighborhoods and meet every couple of weeks. Each person would have spent the past two weeks watching the Congress and their local representatives, and how they propose or vote on issues, as well as watching what the President is doing. Then a vote would be taken at the meeting as to whether the President and representatives are acting in your best interests. If something is disliked, telephone, fax and call these people and let them know. If something is liked, let them know about that, too.

The point is to inundate your elected representatives with e-mails, faxes and telephone calls. Let them know they are being watched by an observant electorate who will no longer tolerate inefficiency and insensitivity. Believe me, I think it will have a powerful effect. When they know that their re-election is in jeopardy, they may well straighten up and start acting like the servants they really are.

Further, I maintain it would not hurt if large numbers of us marched on Washington from time to time, voicing our demands. Also, for sure, any representative who you feel has failed you should be voted out of office.

We need to pay much more attention to what is going on in government, and to seek redress when we are being harmed. Democracy only works when the people remain involved. You’ve heard it said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. It’s a mistake to believe that your representatives are sitting in Washington, doing the right thing on your behalf, while you are looking the other way. Too many of them are so obviously not doing the right thing, and have to be held accountable.

But as things stand now, they are counting on you to remain apathetic and ignorant, and so far, they are right.

Forget about politicians looking out for you, as they should. Forget about them coming to your town to tell you what they promise to do, which promises are too often quickly forgotten once they get into office. They instead need to hear what we expect them to do. Remember, they represent us, not the other way around.

Stop giving your power away to them. Politicians are not royalty. They do not automatically have any kind of divine right to anything. I believe that if enough Americans stood up to them, they would back down in a hurry.

It is true that one person alone cannot accomplish much, if anything at all. Power is in the numbers. Enough people have to stand up and make their voices heard. I know there are many angry people out there, angry about the loss of jobs in this country, angry about the debacle on Wall Street, angry about the price of oil, angry about the onward march of illegals into our country, angry about the bailout, angry about the war in Iraq, and angry about a host of other issues as well. We all need to get together and communicate our feelings to a president and Congress that right now is so out of touch.

So here we go again! Another election over a bunch of politicians telling you whatever you want to hear, and ignoring issues that really need open discussion, such as the loss of jobs and the downfall of the middle class, not to mention a few other pressing issues. They’re at it again, promising way too much and unlikely to deliver even a modicum. And you are listening and getting sucked in just as they want, when, in truth, you have the power at any time to turn the tables and make them listen to you.

When are you going to raise your voice?