Full Time Politicians / Part Time Leaders

2008 was a big election year for the word CHANGE and yet, there has been NO CHANGE, at least not the change that's needed. Proof of that was indicated before election night festivities had ended.

During acceptance speeches and media commentaries, I heard the "R" word alluded to and thus the proclamation of there being NO CHANGE. RE-ELECTION is the "R" word that stands clearly in the forefront of most, if not all, of our country's problems of the past, present and future.

Our FULL TIME POLITICIANS understand that JOB ONE is first getting elected. The problem is that on DAY ONE their whole heart, soul and mind is geared towards JOB TWO, getting RE-ELECTED, and that continues all the way to the end of their term. That doesn't leave much time for them to lend their whole heart, soul and mind towards doing what they were supposed to be doing, namely THE PEOPLES' BUSINESS.

I heard it repeated by the victorious that ours is a GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE. Sadly that hasn't really been the case for a very long time, because our government has been HIJACKED by the FULL TIME POLITICIANS. They have become so engrained with the notion that being continuously on the POLITICAL DOLE is not only achievable, but is their divine right, and they accomplish this on OUR TIME and with OUR MONEY.

Who among us would be able to hold down a job if we were spending most of our time seeking another job? Yet that's exactly what our FULL TIME POLITICIANS are doing and have been doing for a long time.

The result has been the dissatisfaction of our citizens who, in 2008, rated the US Congress at less than half the dismal rating they gave the President. The honeymoon for our current President appears to have come to an end as his ratings have started falling. Yet we citizens, more times than not, keep putting the incumbents back into office election after election.

What is so bad about our political leaders running for re-election? My answer is that it takes them away from the job for which they were elected. I accept that most elected officials are intelligent people, yet the results of their service belies that intelligence. Intelligent people cannot perform at an intelligent level when they aren't devoting their full energy towards the task, anymore than the rest of us could.

The worst part is how it can and does affect their decisions. This is where conflict of interest comes into play. The office holders face decisions that may or may not be best for the citizens who elected them. They ultimately have to decide what is best for the society they are representing, or for their re-election prospects. I feel their decisions too often come down on the side of their re-election prospects.

The current financial crisis, if not caused by the home mortgage debacle, certainly was responsible for it reaching the crisis level. Many people were granted loans that should not have been able to qualify for them. Politicians always seeking re-election played a role. It was politicians that mandated restrictions be loosened so more people could realize the American Dream of home ownership. Those same politicians continued to ignore the signs of the problems until finally the crisis was here. Even though many people were granted loans they couldn't afford, the most important fact was that they were all potential voters, who could help re-elect the officials who had enabled them to realize their dream of home ownership.

It is really quite simple to understand how we got here and actually, in my mind, it is quite simple as to how we can solve the problem.

The American voting public will have to be the people who solve this problem. The politicians don't wish to change anything no matter how much they might chatter about change. They would have to implement the change that's needed, but the AMERICAN PEOPLE will have to demand it from them. This is where we can find out if GOVERNMENT OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE can be restored.

My suggested solution would be for REAL ELECTION REFORM, abolishing incumbents from running for re-election. At the federal level all elected offices would become single six year terms, with no right for the office holder to run for re-election for that or any other office, until after the expiration of their elected term. A great idea would be for this to be duplicated throughout all elective office levels, i.e. town, city, county, state and federal.

The six years would be a far more effective term period for public officials who were not having to take time out for campaigning for re-election.For current two-year term offices, it would yield far more than the obvious triple time, because they would be serving six straight years without any lost time for campaigning. The single term for the US Senate and also the Presidency, would be more effective for the same reason.

The lack of the conflict of interest factor would be as important as the effective service time, maybe even more. The office holders could make decisions based strictly on what was deemed best for the public good, without any concern for future political aspirations. The office holders would have the best reasons possible to participate in making good decisions for the overall public good, since they would definitely be returning to the ranks of private citizens at the end of their terms. They would be living under the results of their decisions just like the rest of the public. The quality of their decisions could have a strong bearing on their political futures at the next election cycle two years later.

On that point, this change would not hinder anyone from seeking election to the same office , or any other office at the following election cycle. They would be private citizens for at least two years, which I think would be a real good reality check for all politicians. Every two years ,the staggered six-year term offices would have a third of them available for new candidates to vie for, and their campaigning would be done completely on their own time and with their own funds and / or funds raised from their supporters.

Everyone would be on the same level playing field, with no one becoming a POWERFUL OFFICIAL, being able to dictate to others regarding SPECIAL INTERESTS. The only SPECIAL INTERESTS would be the CITIZENS who elected them.

This would not only be good for the voting public, but also for the officials.Whereas this change would help to protect the public from the elected officials, it would also help to protect the elected officials from themselves. There are former elected officials currently serving prison terms that may have benefited from this type of election reform. I think most of the problems with political fund raising and other types of political corruption would be drastically reduced or eliminated.

With no incumbents running for re-election, candidates wouldn't have to be attacking them to get elected. They would only be in competition with other candidates. The voting public and this country would benefit by not having currently serving officials and this country "run down" during the course of ugly negative campaigns, which have become more and more prevalent.

As though hearing references made to re-election prospects during election results festivities isn't aggravating enough, there is one other occasion that irritates me as much or more. During the recent inauguration festivities, references were made to the TRANSFER OF POWER that was taking place. In a government OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE, there should be NO TRANSFER OF POWER, only the TRANSFER OF LEADERSHIP. WE THE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE THE POWER and the political leaders should really be doing what they claim they wish to do, namely serving the people.

I've shared these thoughts with relatives, friends, neighbors and even some strangers. I have gotten mixed reactions. Most were in full agreement and some were not. The majority seem to doubt that WE THE PEOPLE could ever get our elected officials to relinquish the STRANGLEHOLD they currently have on us CITIZENS.

That irritates me a lot. I don't like to think that we participate in a SHAM of a GOVERNMENT OF BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE. I say we could demand this type of change from the currently serving officials. We could and should ask if they would support such a change , and if not, we should proceed to do everything possible to elect new officials that would support such a change.

Whenever we have the opportunity to do so, we need to tell the politicians we want this change. Do it in personal contacts, telephone calls, Email and regular mail. Tell them that they will be able to do a better job as elected officials if this type of REAL ELECTION REFORM is implemented. Talk about it with friends and direct them to this Blog site for the full details I've set out.

My desire is to see AMERICA remaining the greatest country in all the world. To do so, I believe we need to get back to what our Founding Fathers fought and died for. They left their various vocations to give service to their country, but not to live off their country. Their intentions were honorable and they served with honor. The Founding Fathers' declaration that our government was to be OF, BY AND FOR PEOPLE was NOT MEANT as a SUGGESTION.

Thank you for reading this and for doing what you can to help, and may GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

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