Occupy D.C.

It’s time we all faced the fact that our Federal government is broken. 

Despite the best intentions of the nation’s founders, we’ve managed to screw it up. 

Congress has become a parliament of whores, only interested in maintaining power and position.  The Presidency has devolved from using its bully pulpit to lead, to just being a bully.  Even the Supreme Court has been compromised through a confirmation process that puts a higher value on ideology than proficiency or objectivity.      

Many in government now consider the Constitution an anachronism that can’t be expected to keep pace with changing social mores and trends in a complex, modern society.  So they ignore it. 

A free and unfettered press once could be counted on as an objective watchdog to expose government malfeasance and corruption.  That’s why it’s afforded such protections under the Constitution.  However, while the press remains free and unfettered, it’s now more lapdog to a particular perspective than objective watchdog. 

Without any hard and fast rules, and no checks and balances, everything’s in free fall. 

Instead of a nation of laws, governed in turn by the Constitution, we’ve become a Darwinian society where survival of the fittest has morphed into survival of the most politically connected. 

Who you know and what power you have over them is most important. 

Corporations, Wall Street, special interest groups, and all their respective lobbyists control what happens in Congress and the Presidency.  They control what laws get passed or killed, and what regulations are enacted.  They are willing to pay for that control. 

Mao said political power grows from the barrel of a gun; in America political power grows from the barrel of a Mont Blanc pen signing a big campaign check.   

Big campaign checks seduce both Republicans and Democrats equally, regardless of source.  It makes no difference if the check – or another service of equal value – is from George Soros, the Koch brothers, Goldman Sachs, GE, the AFL-CIO, SEIU, or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  The contributor is buying a seat at the table and a voice in policy decisions, with the clear expectation that the greater the value of their contribution, the more powerful their voice.   

Campaign finance reform to reduce this influence is a joke.  Every time someone brings up a new plan, someone else figures out a workaround to keep the corruption flowing.  Plus, politicians don’t really want to end big-money politics anyway.  They’re never going to come up with legislation to minimize the power of money in politics any more than they will pass laws limiting their own terms.    

This helps to make the two-party system irrelevant.  Neither the Republican nor Democrat Party stands for much anymore.  The establishment-types that run each pretend there are differences between the two parties, but there really aren’t. 

Both national parties seek the same thing – control over who among big campaign contributors gets rewarded and who gets punished.  Those who get rewarded are counted on to contribute more money.  Likewise, those who get punished can be counted on to contribute more money to reverse their fortunes.  It’s a win/win for politicians. 

So where do we – the ordinary folks in the middle – fit in all this? 

I mean, we’re the ones paying all the bills with our taxes.  We’re the ones who suffer the consequences of stupid fiscal and economic policies.  We’re the ones who have to pick up the tab in higher prices for some special treatment or protection given to some legislator’s constituent.

Where do we fit?  Honestly, we don’t.  We don’t have a voice.  

Big corporations, big unions, and big special interest groups are calling all the shots.    

Forget Mr. Smith goes to Washington; almost nobody in either party is willing to stand up to them and do what’s right for the rest of us. 

Establishment Republicans and Democrats like the status quo.  They do everything in their power – including forming unholy alliances with each other behind the scenes – to maintain the status quo.  The media for now also likes the status quo.   

So how do we change things?  How do we get the power back? 

There needs to be a revolution.  We need to overthrow the government we have now.  I think most of us realize that; we just differ on how to do it. 

I propose that as a first step we re-elect no one to the House or Senate who opposes legislation calling for no more than one term for a Senator and two terms for a House member.

I’m sure one of the Tea Party freshmen would be happy to introduce that legislation.  The threat of being defeated in the general election is primarily to pressure the old guard of both parties to give it up and stop fighting term limits.   

Six years as a Senator and four years as a House member is long enough.  These people need to get real jobs and see what it’s like in the real world. 

Concurrently, we need to start pressing for a Constitutional Convention (Article V) through state legislatures with the goal of codifying those term limits on the Federal level.  This is the way to go because it’s the only way to bypass Congress to get a Constitutional Amendment considered.  You need two-thirds of all state legislatures in agreement.  And it will take a long time. 

While we’re leaning on state legislatures, let’s push through open primaries for House and Senate seats.  California has already done this as an experiment.  There would be only one unified primary for each seat where any registered voter could vote for the candidate of his or her choice, regardless of party affiliation.  The top two popular vote winners – regardless of party – would face off in the general election.  

Maybe we’d finally get qualified and more rational men and women in office based on their appeal to a broader spectrum of voters in their districts, rather than to narrow interest nut jobs.

This is how I’d start.  We need to shake the foundations.  Government needs to fear the people, not the other way around.  Senators and Representatives need to represent the interests of their constituents, not just themselves.

And the best way to start is to make sure Senators and Representatives start realizing they have part-time jobs, not full-fledged government careers for life. 

Eventually I’d like to see a viable alternative to the current Republican and Democrat parties.  

Maybe a very radical party that would promise to uphold the Constitution of the United States and actually do that if elected. 

A party that might – just might – roll back our government to its enumerated powers. 

In the meantime, I’d settle for getting rid of all the deadwood and shameless whores in office now.