In my last essay, I explored the professed need for term limits, and pointed out the fact that the American people don't use the tremendous power that the framers of the Constitution gave them: the power to vote. Why aren't the American people paying attention to important issues? Well, the American people have a lot of interests: their jobs, their families, sports, lotto, Jerry Springer. One item of interest that seems to be way, way down the totem pole is the state of our nation.
If you judge by voter turnouts in election after election; federal, state and local; only a small minority of citizens are truly interested in who is running the government; what laws they'll pass; where the country is going. But even then, of those who are actually taking the time to vote, how many actually understand the issues; how many a actually know the record of the person who they are voting for? How are people supposed to learn about the issues and supposed to learn the record of their congressman, or his opponent? Generally, one would assume that you could reasonably learn about the important issues facing this country, or about the real records of those running this country, from the .... everybody .... the press! However, the sad truth is that, judging by the weight the press gives certain stories, if we really find out who the President is screwing, all of our problems will be solved.
While we sit here is the U.S., with poorly educated kids, disease ridden inner cities, looming financial collapses of our federal pension and social security systems; the press is worried about semen stains on a dress. Isn't that special. At this point, I don't know who to blame more, the press for putting out this crap, or the public; which can't seem to get enough of it. It is almost like the chicken and the egg. Whoever is to blame (and I think I know who), the press and the populace are both failing in their constitutional imperatives. One has a duty to inform the other of the important issues at hand. The other has a duty to demand that they be informed about the important issues at hand.
Not that the information isn't out there; whatever your political leaning. But it is just sad that one must affiliate oneself with various organizations in order to learn about issues in-depth (depth - there is a word that you don't much associate with the press). As year after year goes by, and the press keeps giving out irrelevant bits of information to the public; the more irrelevant they will become. The hard core political junkies will (and probably already do) turn to the internet for their information; while the masses will sit, drooling, in front of their televisions, watching the new CBS anchor, Jerry Springer, talk about the really important issue of the day, invariably involving bi-sexual strippers.
The danger is, with special interests remaining important to politicians, and the public becoming evermore irrelevant to, and removed from, the political process; we (the people, remember us) may find ourselves out of a job. Use it or lose it, as the saying goes. Now, one might say that with this somewhat pessimistic, cynical point of view, that term limits would be needed more than ever, to help those who can't help themselves (the American voter, that is). But the problem is that voters are fully capable of discerning the issues and voting out those politicians are aren't doing their jobs. But the voters are lazy and are choosing not to get involved. I don't think that voters are passively watching their government slip away, I think that they are actively watching their government slip away. The answer to the blame question is clear in my mind: it is the voter's responsibility to demand that politicians do what is needed for the country's health, and it is the voter's responsibility to demand that the press give them the information necessary to make educated decisions about important issues and convey those decisions to their elected officials who are supposed to carry out the will of the people.
It is time for the people to take their country back. We don't need new laws, or constitutional amendments. We just need for the American people to take a few hours out of their busy week, to look at and discuss important issues among themselves (let us hope that the art of political discourse is not yet dead in this country). Most importantly, the American people need to let their elected officials know that they are watching and paying attention to what is happening in the country. With 260 million pairs of interested and involved eyes on Washington, they are bound to behave.
"Law, being a sign of Corruption in Man; many laws are signs of Corruption of a State."
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