Let's face the awful truth of this election

Craig Skaggs
Professional politicians marketed to public

Let's face the awful truth of this election and the sorry state of our democracy: We, the voters, who number 800,000 per each federal congressperson, are unheard. The system is broken, and our representative officials are not representative at all.

They are just party members. Four hundred twenty members out of all the 435 federal House members are professional politicians who have been in public office, on and off, for most of their lives. This longevity eventually assures their allegiance is only to their party and the lobbying money that funds the campaigns.

The two parties are simply marketing organizations for the stars: war heroes, attractive hockey moms, a black organizer, a toothy white talker from small-town Pennsylvania.

C'mon folks. Do you really believe all the party marketing silliness about the people running for leader of the free world?

So here we go. Congress has become a two-sided television reality show titled "Peeing Match." Over the past decades, congressional party marketing has done nothing to help America. They continue to do nothing.

What does Congress do when the executives of big finance overextend their greed? Bailouts for everyone. Your government in the past weeks has announced nearly a trillion dollars in bailouts. That totals $3,333 for each man, woman, child and illegal alien in the U.S. And that's on top of the current $11 trillion we have borrowed from others. So Congress has overspent what we have in the treasury by more than $40,000 per each American family.

Please note: Congress caused today's economic breakdown in America by helping financial lobbyists twist the arm of President Clinton to eliminate the very regulation that would have prevented this mess. Congress needs to stop allowing corporations to blackmail America with their bigness.

Company lobbyists say: "We're too big, so you cannot let us fail. It will destroy your economy. Bail us out. It's your only option."

If Congress were doing its job, its leaders would say: "OK. You're too big. We're going to bust you up and pass a law preventing banks from ever becoming this big again. And we're going to do it now, today, in the middle of the election. And all your top executives will be subpoenaed."

Will Congress admit its blame and stem the crisis? Don't hold your breath. Who are some of the very biggest contributors to the two parties? You guessed it. Financial institutions.

If Congress were doing its job, it would recognize that since public agencies cannot lobby or give contributions, the quasi-governmental Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should not be donating millions of dollars to campaigns. It's against the law, but Congress is doing nothing to stop it.

What can we do? Here are a few ideas:

1) Make elected officials accountable by taking away all the protective shields they have built around themselves; make votes of confidence and congressional recall truly feasible, as in the U.K.

2) Demand a two-term lifetime limit for Congress and Senate.

4) Create a system where we the people can force congressional will, via referendums. Creating a system of citizen referendums (like many states have) will give some power back to the people.

5) Take away the political donation power of lobbyists and their clients.

6) The Electoral College is outdated and should be disbanded. Voters should elect the president and vice president. Alternatively, eliminate presidential voting by the people and employ only congressional appointment for this task.

7) In order to implement the points above, in November vote against and remove all congressional incumbents and start fresh. Write in your own name, if that's what it takes.

Skaggs is a former DuPont lobbyist.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200810150494