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the trouble with politics is all the
politicians. I've got to believe that when our founding
fathers held that first shindig with all the fireworks
and proclaimed this a free nation, they never imagined it
would be controlled by asses and elephants...mainly
asses. Through the years, I have drifted back and forth
between parties looking for that intelligent, well
thought-out platform, only to be disappointed when
campaign promises once again became office hedges. Our
political system, even being arguably the best in the
world, is fraught with...god forbid...politics. There
used to be a time that the term politics wasn't spelled
with only four letters. Personally, I believe there are a
lot of well-meaning folks now serving the masses, but I
sincerely doubt that they can really vote their
conscience. Not if they aspire to become a powerful
committee chairman, or attain other leadership positions
in Congress. To be fair, our political parties were
probably necessary at one time, just as unions were, and
may be again (that's a whole 'nother discussion we'll
have some other time!). Voting the party line is not why
we vote someone into a position to represent us. We want
our representative to be his own man, or woman, and vote
his own conscience, not the collective line. This ain't
the Borg!! I have a great deal of respect for those bold
folks that we read about crossing party lines to vote
what they feel is right. It may be they are doing it for
personal gain, but I choose to believe that is
not
normally the case. I'm not quite that jaded...yet. Or,
perhaps I am. Perhaps you are, also. Why else would so
few of us take advantage of the one right that people
universally are willing to die for? It wasn't so long ago
that blacks and women had to fight for that right. What
happened to that strong, patriotic fire that our parents
and grandparents had burning inside? People don't believe
that their vote counts any longer. Sure, a single vote
can turn an election. That's not the issue. It's that no
matter which lever we throw, it seems that once we put
them in office, they no longer represent
us...they
represent the
party
whose initial is attached in parentheses at the end of
their name. Independent parties recognize this
disenchantment that has swept the country for so many
years, but so far have been unable to pin the right label
on it. The day someone can convince us that they can be
effective against both parties, and we believe that they
truely represent our beliefs, we will witness the
greatest sweeping landslide of an election ever.
Kennedy's and Reagan's charisma was able to supercede our
indifference enough to make us believe that it might just
be possible, but the inevitable party versus party
bickering brought us back down to earth. So much hope,
only to be driven headlong into the ditch once more
simply because both parties appear to care more about
discrediting the other than with actually agreeing on a
win-win solution. We can no longer afford this nonsense.
Let's either disslove political parties, or change the
rules to discourage the political blackmail that causes
intelligent people to refrain from making intelligent
choices...or at least ones that their constituents agree
with. Let's make it possible to hold each one of our
representatives accountable for the promises they they
make, and the platform they claim to represent. If
politicians realize that they, and they alone, will be
held accountable for each and every decision they make
while representing us, they will soon recognize that they
vote the party line at their own risk. We can then create
a checklist of each one's voting record, comparing each
decision to see how well each has kept their promises and
voted consistent with the platform each was elected to
implement.
We would never hand a blank check to a
used-car salesman and tell him to fill in what they
believe is fair, so why do we continue to allow people
who refuse to represent our views to spend 28% of each of
our paychecks? And I thought my mama didn't raise no
fool.
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 Let me hear from
you.
Find any bad links or
have ones you would like to share?
Everett
A.Goodwin III
chunt@oocities.com
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