by Kerry Thomas
June 27, 2006
On July 4, 1776 Congress made a bold declaration to the
world. The delegates who represented
the American Colonies declared unanimously that, due to a history of “patient
sufferance” under the tyranny of the King of Great Britain, “these United
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”
One of the chief usurpations cited by the delegates in their
declaration was “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
The Members of that first Congress were so sure that what
they were doing was the right thing to do they pledged to one another their very
lives, their fortunes and their Sacred Honor.
It took until September 17, 1787 for the new Congress to
ratify the document we know as our U.S. Constitution.
These two documents were radical in their time (and remain so today). They had at their core the idea that individuals know best how to live their own lives, free from the oppressive hand of a tyrannical government. The Constitution was meant to restrain the power of government, not to enumerate the rights endowed to individuals by their Creator.
Thomas Jefferson and the other Founders did not want to see
a new entrenched political class ascend to power in America. It was their view that common ordinary
Americans from all walks of life should participate in their own
governance. They wanted Americans from
all walks of life to serve for a brief time as elected representatives of the
people, then leave elected office and return to the private sector. Jefferson once wrote “An elective despotism
was not the government we fought for.”
Fast forward to 2006.
While there are some people who remember the admonitions of
our Founders against an entrenched political class, we’ve allowed our elective
political institutions to be transformed into little more than another
ineffective bureaucratic institution.
We routinely see people serving in elected office for 10, 20 even 30
years or more. In an average election
year, nearly 95% of the Members of Congress who stand for re-election retain
“their” seats in Congress.
We have two major political parties, both of whom seem to
value the seniority system in putting forth their candidates. Voters seldom have an opportunity to select
the most qualified representatives, only the most senior in the pecking
order. We’ve allowed “experience” in
elected office to become a poor substitute for experience in the real world. Recall the 1996 presidential election, in
which the Republicans ran Bob Dole as their candidate because "it was his
turn.”
The absurd lust by the two
parties for winning has made primary election contests almost unheard of. The leaders of the parties tacitly anoint
their candidate of choice, and give little support or encouragement to anyone
else from within the party who seeks that same office. Party leaders even go so far as to use their
positions of influence to adversely affect the campaigns of anyone who
challenges their anointed candidate.
Ronald Reagan once said “Government is not the solution to
our problems. Government is the problem.” The basic structure of our American political system (the U.S.
Constitution) is sound. The problem
comes with the arrogance of those we elect to serve us in public office. We let these career politicians get away
with telling us they can solve all our problems, when they (or their
predecessors) are the ones who caused the problems in the first place. The words “career politician” are themselves
an anathema to the beliefs of our Founders.
You can’t fix a broken system when those in charge of the
system don’t see a problem with it.