THE PROBLEM WITH OUR FORM OF GOVERNMENT

In my working life I had to hire and fire many employees. I took my responsibility seriously. After I hired someone, I then had to make sure they were trained. Some employees just couldn’t learn the job. Ultimately after much effort at training and re-training, some had to be fired. That’s life and that’s business. As the employer I was responsible for the actions or lack of action of my employees. That, of course, is how business is run. Our form of government is not a business however. So then the question arises what is our responsibility as a citizen of this country?

Today, I am sure you would agree, we as a country are in trouble. We have huge debt problems. We are fighting two separate wars. We have energy issues and rising gasoline prices. We have unacceptable unemployment numbers. Real estate values have sunk to their lowest levels in years. Social Security and Medicare are rapidly running out of money. All of us would have to agree we are in trouble.

If you believe the national media, one would conclude that all of this is our fault. Senior citizens are too greedy. We should all pay more taxes. Etc, etc, etc. Well, guess what? None of this is our fault. If our government was a business maybe. But we’re not. Unless you are a Member of Congress or the President, none of this is your fault. Your responsibility begins and ends at the ballot box. That is where we hire our employees to represent us. How they perform their jobs is their fault.

This then is where the problem starts. There is no opportunity to train this new employee. There is no monthly evaluation report. We don’t even know when or if they show up for work. Were they prompt? Were they tardy? Did they sleep at their desk? Did they have a three martini lunch? The only way we know anything about their performance is what they tell us. It seems to work like this. Joe Blow from Cornbread Crossing, Kentucky is elected to Congress. He moves to Washington DC. In just a matter of days, he is no longer a Kentuckian. He soon becomes a Washingtonian. He becomes a member of the elite good old boy’s club. He manages to maneuver a second term, then a third, and before you know it he is a career politician who cares only about his own self interest. He has never seen himself as your employee and now he sees himself as invincible. The only time he shows up in Kentucky is at re-election time. As a citizen, your only option is to fire him.

You know, of course, that Congress now has an approval rating in single digits. Why on earth are these morons continually re-elected? Why do voters seem to always blame someone else’s Congressman for the problems? The facts are clear. The Congress does not represent the people who elected them. Not yours and not mine. They represent themselves. They choose up sides, select their own leaders, and vote for their own pay raises and holidays. They vote for their own benefits and they are responsible to no one except at re-election time. Then they rely on the fact that the majority of the electorate is too busy trying to survive in the screwed up economy which they the Congress created to feel the heavy hand of government picking their back pockets.

How do we fix this? Well, the first step is to hold those whom we have elected accountable for their actions. Don’t let them get away with blaming someone else. We recently heard a Republican candidate for President say in a debate that sometimes in the Senate he voted for things he didn’t believe in to “take one for the team.” What? That, ladies and gentlemen is a load of BULL. That is not what I am looking for in a leader. Congress has only one team and that is the American people.

If, by some miracle, you get the opportunity to talk with your elected representative before this next election, ask him to read this piece or, better yet, tell him yourself. Let’s fix this mess.

Ron Scarbro March 7, 2012