The Government We Deserve

I’d like to talk to you about the elections of 2012.  

You probably think it’s odd to start talking about that now, after all most people don’t think about elections, or politics in general, except during an election year.

You see, I think that’s a mistake.  The choice of who is running the country, and I’m talking about Legislative as well as Executive branches, is an important decision.  Important decisions should never be left until the last minute. 

After all, would you wait to make the choice about who you’re going to marry until you were in the church, waiting to walk down the isle?  By that time, you’ve got a very limited number of people to choose from.  Basically at that point, you have only the people who are in the church.

Yet that is exactly what Americans do for every election.  They wait until the candidates declare themselves a year or so before the election.  Most I suspect, wait until the field has been narrowed down to just two.  Do you marry the organist, or the minister?

You think that’s funny?  It’s more truthful than you realize.  After all, by the time you have only two choices for office, whatever office, you’re talking about two career politicians.  These are people who do this for a living.  If we’re going to use a church wedding as an analogy, we might as well take it all the way.  The minister and organist are two people you’re most likely to find in a church at any given time.

They are also probably the two least likely people you’ll really be happy with.

Sow In The Spring...

So That You May Reap In The Fall

Why start thinking about an election that won’t happen for another three years?  Because every day, politicians make decisions that affect you.  They decide what you can or can’t do.  They decide when you can or can’t do it, and where.  Unfortunately in recent years, they’ve been deciding which of your rights they’re going to take from you.

How can they do that?  Because you let them.  We all let the politicians do whatever they like, and all we do is complain about it.  We’ve let the politicians convince us that it’s in our best interest to let them make all the choices for us.  We have let them convince us that we have no power, and believing that, we have freely given our power to them.

People, for the most part, are apathetic about politics.  It’s only leading up to a major election, that people take claim to their power to choose, but even that is an illusion.  Who is it that decides what candidate a political party will put up for and support in an election?  We The People?  No, it’s the political parties themselves who choose.

Sure, we have Primaries and Caucuses, but let me ask you, how often have you seen a better candidate passed over by a party, in favor of someone else?  We The People don’t even actually elect the President.  That is done by the Electoral College.  Who decides the members of the Electoral College? 

The Electoral College was established in Article II of the Constitution.  While state law determines how the Electors are chosen, they are usually chosen by the political party committees within each state.

That means the political parties, The Democratic and Republican parties, from each state are the ones most likely to decide who will elect the President.  Each states Electors, as well as the three from the District of Columbia, are supposed to vote unanimously for one candidate based on which of the candidates won the popular vote for that state.

If candidate ‘A’ wins the popular vote in the state of Nebraska, all the Electors from Nebraska vote for candidate ‘A’ in the Electoral College.  While that is what’s supposed to happen, there’s nothing in the Constitution that requires an Elector to do that.    They could just as easily vote for the candidate of their choice, or their party’s choice.

Now I’m not suggesting that sort of thing has ever changed the outcome of an election.  I am however trying to point out the system of controls that the politicians use to their advantage, to give us the illusion of power.  You should pay attention to that man behind the curtain.

Why Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils?

Most people however, just cast their vote, usually for the lesser of two evils in their own mind, then complain about the winner, whether they voted for him or not.  Why vote for the lesser of two evils?  Why not take an active interest in who gets picked to run for election? 

Sure, there are those who actively support one candidate or another every election, but the majority of America’s citizens don’t.  It’s this majority that I’m speaking to.  Most Americans can’t be bothered to take the time to research what a candidate for office really believes, yet they don’t believe the campaign promises they make.  The vast majority of people rely on sound bites to make their choice.  How well can you know a person based on 10 second clips?  That’s not what I would call an informed decision.

Fifteen years ago it took a lot of effort to get information about a politician, and what they were doing.  Now we have the internet, and you can find everything you want, sitting in the comfort of your living room, in your underwear.  TiVo Must Watch TV, and take some time to learn about who you might want to vote for.

Right now, there are a lot of people who are quite literally scared to death over the healthcare reforms President Obama wants to pass.  Every bill that gets put in front of Congress, is on the web.  Both House and Senate bills are there for anyone to read.  Yet no one does.  If you are reading this, you have the ability to see for yourself, exactly what the Healthcare Bill says.  But you won’t, will you?

Whether you think you are for, or against the Healthcare overhaul, you owe it to yourself to take time to read what Congress is voting on.  Then you can tell your Senators and Representatives how you feel about it.  They all have email.

We The People have forgotten that the elected officials in government work for us, not the other way around.  Is it any wonder that they feel that they can do whatever they want?  If a Senator slips a 200 million dollar amendment that will benefit some of his friends into a Bill, who’s going to notice?  Certainly not the people who elected him.  After all, politicians know better than we do, what’s best for us.  Isn’t that why we elected them?

If you’re idly sitting back and just complaining about what our government is doing, instead of actively participating in government, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.  

If you can’t be bothered to check even the bills that you think might affect you personally, you’re part of the problem, not the solution.

If you think someone else is going to fix thing for you, you are part of the problem, not the solution!

You Can Do Something

No one but Congress has the time to look at every Bill up for consideration.  Even they usually have assistants read through the Bills, and tell them the basic idea, but if the majority of Americans looked at just a few Bills up for vote, most all of the Bills put before Congress would be scrutinized by someone other than the government.

How easy do you think it would be for Congress to vote themselves a pay raise, if they knew at least some Americans were likely to read it?  How fast do you think word would cross the Internet, if just a few people saw such a Bill?  How hard is it really, to send one simple email to everyone you know? 

We’ll send out emails telling us how many years of bad luck we’ll get if we don’t pass it on, but we won’t inform everyone we know, of a Bill before Congress that may be of interest?

What does that say about our society? 

We have the ability to see in fine detail, exactly what our government is doing.  Each and every one of us has this ability.  You can go into any library in the country, and get free Internet access, so anyone can find out what our government is doing.  Yet we don’t.

A Vigilant America

In World War II, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto refused to even consider an invasion of the US.  Why?  Because he knew that Americans owned guns, and he feared that there would be a gun behind every blade of grass.  Just the idea of a vigilant and armed America, was enough of a threat to stop the entire Imperial navy.  That’s power.

What do you think the threat of a watchful and caring America would do to the politicians who’ve made a career out of taking what they want, because no one is watching?  How likely is a Bill, filled with pork, that benefits some Congressmen, or their friends, to pass if Congress is flooded with email telling them not to?

Ok, so your Congressman is flooded with email telling him that his constituents want him to vote against a particular Bill, but he votes for it anyway.  What now? 

You fire him! 

That’s right, come the next election, you vote him out in favor of someone who will do what you want. 

We only have to look back as far as this last election, to see that it can be done.  Americans voted out Republicans, and voted in Democrats because they didn’t like the job the Republicans were doing.

If politicians felt that it was no longer a matter of how much money they used to get their faces out to the public, but how well they followed the desires of those who put them there, elections would be a lot less expensive, and government would be made over in the image of the people, not the other way around.

These people work for us.  We are their bosses.  Everyone from the local dog catcher to the President of the United States, works for us.  Every employer has the right to fire any employee who doesn’t do the work they were hired to do.  Politicians, our employees, are hired to vote on the laws we decide, as we decide they should.  Allowing politicians to have free reign to do as they wish, is bad management.

Who Am I?

So who am I to be telling you what to do? 

Why should you listen to me? 

What qualifications do I have?

I’m an American citizen.  That’s the only qualification any of us need to decide who represents us in government.

I’m Joe Average.  I work hard when I can find work.  I pay my taxes, and try to keep up on my bills.  I believe I’m at least moderately intelligent, even if I don’t have a degree.  I believe Americans are smart enough to make informed decisions, though they may need a kick in the butt to start doing it.

I have become a small business owner because I can’t rely on someone else giving me a job.  Even if my business isn’t making any money yet, it’s my part of the American Dream, and I’ll be damned if I’ll just sit back and let the government tell me how to run it.

I’m not running for any office, I’m just a guy with an idea and a camera.

I’m not telling you who to vote for, or what Bill Congress should pass. 

I’m telling you to look at that yourself, and make up your own mind.  If you vote for a candidate because he’s the most popular, or because someone told you that you should, you’re not voting for your candidate, you’re voting for theirs. 

If you don’t know that Congress is passing a law that will allow the police to tap your phone for any reason without telling you, are you still harmed by it?

I believe that as long as the American people are apathetic about our government, we will get a government that is apathetic to our needs and desires.  

I believe that if we choose to, we can have a government that does what we want them to, and that we can be proud of.  We get the government we deserve.

The Power Of One

We have been brainwashed into believing that one person can’t make a difference, even though the rallying cry has been “One person, one vote”.  

Call this an experiment in the power of One. 

I believe one person can make a difference, if that person is willing to stand up and be counted. 

I believe one person can inspire many, and those many can inspire millions. 

If millions are inspired to stand up and be counted how can they be ignored?  The 2012 elections will tell this experiment's success or failure.

Up until the next election, I plan to put out videos, and written rants, telling you how I see things.  You may not agree with everything I say, but you might agree with some of it.  

I want to make you think.  The most dangerous thing to any government is a population that thinks for themselves.

I believe that Americans are tired of politics as usual.  Hell we voted in as President, a man who promised change, even if he never told us what change he planned.  

I’m neither pro Republican, nor pro Democrat, I’m pro American.  Who you vote for is your choice.  I just want you to make an informed one.

I believe we have the right to revolt against our government and change it as we choose.  That right was given to us in the Constitution.  All we have to do is claim it.  We did it in the last election, but I don’t believe we changed it far enough.  All we did was trade one career politician for another. 

I believe that if we want true change, we need to find people who want to make a difference, and elect them to office.  This country was founded on Democratic principles and Capitalistic ideals. 

We got the Democratic principles from the ancient Greeks, but the Capitalistic ideals were all our own.  What would George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson say, if they were to see what we have done to their beloved Republic?

Ideas can’t be jailed, or killed, or silenced once they’re out.  Britain learned that 233 years ago.  As long as We The People are complacent, our government can do whatever it wishes.  Whose best interests do you think your elected officials really have at heart, yours, or their own?

Barak Obama was right.  It is time for a change. 

It is time for Americans to take back their rights and their country. 

It’s time for our duly elected government to listen to the American people, and do as we say.

I believe that it’s time for Americans to wake up, and take control of their own destinies. 

I believe that America is the best country to live in, even with its problems. 

I believe that any problem can be solved, if the people want to solve it.

I have faith in America and her people, but that’s just my opinion.