Career Politicians
When the United States of America declared independence from the United Kingdom a couple centuries ago the founding fathers had some reservations on the future regarding politics. We need to understand who our nation’s founding fathers were to be able to figure out if the process was flawed from start or if during the years that followed it failed on its own.
First of all, in the USA, like in most countries, young Naive Americans are taught history according to the people that won the independence war. When this happens the reasons and goals of their actions are praised (they were heroes not traitors) and associated with some supernatural causes (mostly god and humanity). The founding fathers of our country were wealthy people who did not wish to pay taxes to an absent leader. I believe the slogan was “No taxation without representation”. At the time European Royalty did not valued opinions from commoners, especially when they came from the colonies.
The founding fathers were very concerned that one of them or their descendents might build a monarchy that would replace the British crown. Politicians would take care of their personal business (at that time was mostly farming) and when needed or under some schedule would take care of the needs of the Republic. They did not want an official (i.e., president) to be reelected until his death and then be succeeded by his heir (a monarchy). They did not trust US citizens so they created a convoluted republic (not a democracy) so the government would have to some extent control on elections. They did not believe all men were created equal. Slaves were common at the time and when the US was born, slavery continued. If you have questions about these statements feel free to consult reputable history references.
In a relative short period of time things changed in the US. People with means (which I like to refer to as American Royalty) decided that they would continue to run the country as the founding fathers did. To do so political parties were created. Now American Royalty could promote politicians that would follow what they were told. To make sure money could be funneled to political parties and politicians, lobbyist came to be. The idea behind lobbyist is to have people that can explain to politicians how they should think. This does not say much about politicians. Naive Americans can vote all they want but lobbyist tell politicians what to do. History has shown us that behind every failure in the past sixty or so years politicians ‘convinced by lobbyist’ have passed laws for the advantage of the American Royalty and the debacle of the USA. You need some examples of this? Look at the Clinton administration when the law that allowed the housing crisis to be. Look at the politicians who embraced ‘Globalization’ for the good of the American Royalty and the loss of jobs in our country, jobs that will NEVER be replaced. Recall the Bush administration and the defense contractor that took office as vice president. Naive Americans were convinced that we need to go to war to maintain our way of life and provide billions of dollars a month to defense companies. There are plenty examples with Democratic and Republican administrations.
Take a look at the politicians that serve in the senate and congress (both at the nation and state level). Most of them have a poor track record. Of course their respective parties do what ever it takes to portray them as heroes. This observation becomes obvious close to election times. Each candidate appears to have a great track record and will solve the problems of their constituents (as stated by their political ads). If you hear the opposing party, the story is completely different (as described by their political ads). Naive American should understand that those are career politicians, which cannot be trusted and do not care about their constituents. With enough economical support their poor actions will always look heavenly.
What we need is to eliminate lobbyists, single term for all political offices, single political position ever, controlled political contributions and political accountability with well defined prison terms for politicians that make decisions because of favors.
I know, these CHANGES will never occur therefore what can we expect will happen to the USA? The American way of life has, is and in the foreseeable future looks dim. Perhaps Mr. Obama will just make very FEW but GOOD changes. So far we have not seen a single positive change. Perhaps in the next three years. I am not standing holding my breath.
