True Representation Demands Total Responsibility

One thing that has made itself abundantly clear throughout these past years is that the American government is no longer responsible to the people that they represent. The men and women who have been elected to Congress have failed in their role as the representatives of the people of this nation, and instead have begun to take America down the path of government tyranny. And this is a path that America cannot afford to go down.

Today in the United States, the representatives and senators who sit in Washington D.C. have the idea that they have been elected to office so that they can pursue their own agenda of what they think is the path America should take, and that is an absolutely fallacious idea. The original intent of the role of representative was to be there to act in the national interest of the people of their district, and nothing else. Because the Founders realized that a true democracy, like that of ancient Greece, was wholly impractical in a nation the size of the newly formed United States, they formed a democratic republic, in which the people chose the person that they felt would best represent their interests in the national legislature. That person was to speak for them and their interests at a national level. All state level decisions, subsequently, were to be left to the state legislatures. These decisions are many and diverse, as Madison stated in Federalist 45 and were to reside with the states alone. The men who were to be elected to Congress were to decide on matters of a national nature only, such as foreign commerce, the military, the national budget and the like. That was what they were charged with.

In the present Congress, it seems that the men and women who are elected to sit there think that they need to have a hand in manner of business. We have seen in the past years the Congress hold hearings on issues such as steroids in sports, (baseball having gotten the most attention); and even more recently, there have rumors have arisen of backroom meetings discussing trying to get the Bowl Championship Series to change how they select the teams that are sent to play in the college football bowl games. Now, does this really need the attention of Congress when the United States is in dire economic straits? I think not. These are not matters of national importance. Yes, steroids in baseball are bad, but let the consequences be felt by the players who do them when they begin to see the physical effects of the drugs they are using on their bodies. Of course many college football fans hate the BCS system because it seems totally rigged, but let the NCAA figure out a better way to choose the teams. It does not take a congressional committee to decide these things. They are unimportant issues in the grand scheme of things.

Why is the American government acting this way? Why are they pursuing agendas that are harmful to the form of government set in place by the Patriot generation? The reason is that the government is no longer responsible to the people. And on top of that, the American people have become completely lethargic and apathetic when it comes to the government that affects their everyday lives. They don't pay attention anymore. They just go to the polls in November every two years and cast a ballot for their party candidate or the person who looks or sounds the best. They fail to pay attention to the issues. And believe me, these elected officials know it, and have played upon it for years. It is this political laziness in the citizens of America that has been the creator of these mass problems, because they just don't pay attention. And it is a poison that is slowly killing this country.

This is a disease that must be cured, and there is a sure remedy to it, an antidote to the poison, as it were. The people must demand of their representative complete responsibility, because only when the government once more becomes completely accountable to the will of the American people will these problems begin to disappear. The congressmen and women in Washington must understand that they have to listen to the will of the people that they were elected by, for, as has been stated in previous posts, if those people put them there, they can also remove them from their seats in Congress. When the people speak, the government must listen, not the other way around. The people are the political authority of the United States.

And in recent weeks, we have begun to see these demands being voiced by countless thousands around the nation. They are beginning to show that American's are becoming fed up with the unaccountability of the national government. People are gathering at modern day tea parties in the major metropolises of this great nation, and voicing their discontent. And this raises the question of whether the government will listen. And the answer I will give is this: It is highly doubtful. And what is the reason for this pessimism, one might ask? Because the men and women who have become part of the Washington government cabal are too entrenched in their love of power that they will not easily change. But there is one sure way to make them listen.

Vote them out of power my friends. When they are kicked out of Washington and replaced by men and women who actually have the welfare of the common American, and not just a certain minority or interest group in mind, then they will realize that they were there at the will of the people, and not there for their own power and self-aggrandizement. Only when people are elected to national office that hold the interests of the nation and their own constituents first in their minds will this nation begin to rise out of this quagmire that it has fallen into. We must choose men and women who are not just a part of the political establishment, but instead have a genuine desire to do what is best for the country as a whole. They are there because we the people cannot all be there. They are doing the work that all Americans should be willing to do, but can't feasibly do. And we should all be ready to step into the breech when our own elected official is not doing the job that they were selected to do. We cannot idly stand by and watch while the nation is destroyed by power hungry politicians. We must do something, just as the Revolutionary generation did when the tyranny of the British king and Parliament became too much to bear. They should be our examples. Look to them, for they had it right. They had the idea, and knew what they wanted. Follow their lead.