Let’s Flush the Political Potty
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
― Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and the primary author of the Declaration of Independence
It’s fitting that I’ve been writing a series on toilets for almost two weeks, because a rant about politics melds nicely with a nasty throne. My blog is not a polemic. It’s primary purpose is to exercise my writing muscles by both informing and entertaining anyone who cares to read it.
Still.
It sickened me to read this series in the Washington Post this week, a detailed investigative report on the stock trades of members of the United States Congress in the lead up to the financial crisis in 2008. The series identified 34 members of Congress, from both political parties, who initiated trades, many within 24 hours after meetings with principals in the United States Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
Thirty-four of our elected officials possibly committed the same crime for which Martha Stewart was excoriated and served time in prison. CEO Jeff Skilling was convicted of insider trading in 2006 as part of the fall of Enron. Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky – those names ring any bells?
If I had acted upon the same exact information our elected representatives most likely had, I too would be bound for jail.
According to Wikipedia, it is not technically illegal for members of the United States Congress to profit from knowledge they may gain in their positions, but the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (SCORE), passed earlier this year, sought to limit the financial gains of our leaders in a puff piece of legislation that basically turns every type of information they could ever hear into “public” data. Why would they pass something that would limit themselves, after all?
Not one major news outlet that I can find has covered this story or expressed outrage about the financial gains these people had while my pathetic stock portfolio dropped by almost half. I can’t find anything on CNN. Nothing on Fox News. Ditto MSNBC and the networks. Please correct me if I missed it, because I’m not the most detailed-oriented person I know.
My problem with this story doesn’t lie with our elected officials. I expect them ALL – regardless of party – to be sleaze bags who are out for number one. They spend all their time raising money to get re-elected and passing laws to benefit themselves and their cronies, and they DO NOT CARE ABOUT ME. Period.
What bothers me is the apathy of the average American. The “I can’t do anything about it” mentality. The divisive clinging to the party line, or the feeling that a vote is merely a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Wake up, American voter. Our entire political process is broken. It’s suffused with corruption, regardless of party. You participate with your vote. If we continue to stand by and vote the same self-serving, bilious people into office – or if we refuse to exercise our right to vote at all – we deserve the government we get.
The United States Congress is the worst toilet imaginable. Let’s flush every single running incumbent out of office this November. I fear it’s the only way We the People have a chance.
Wow! Sadly, I didn’t know anything about this, and I generally consider myself someone who is well-informed. Thanks for sharing it. Potty, indeed–though my word might have been a bit less polite.
Hugs,
Kathy
Kathy, I try to avoid political discussions, because they are so frustrating. So many of us Americans are entrenched in the notion of the rightness of one side or the other, that we overlook behavior like this, which clearly is not in the best interest of the electorate.
At the end of the day, I hope Americans in the coming election will realize that we are all Americans. That’s the common thread that unites us. We have got to focus more on getting people into office who will not make serving in Congress their life-long careers.
I have every intention for voting against every incumbent except one this November. The system is indeed broke and they all need tossed out and start over. Term limits are the only way to have a chance to get out of this mess. Congress will never do this so a grass roots referendum initiative leading to a terms limit law or Constitutional amendment is our only chance.
Sending them all home en masse would be quite a statement in that direction. It makes my head hurt to try to fathom how a grass roots effort could topple this dastardly system.
I always say that we should initiate a grass roots campaign to elect a full government of common-sense wielding, penny-stretching, no-nonsense middle-class moms. They’d whip some sense into the legislature.
Oh, and to adopt something like the British campaigning structure.
Cameron, this story isn’t meant to offend anyone with a legal background. I have several delightful friends who are attorneys.
But.
I attended a continuing education conference (required for my CPA license) in 2010. One of the day-long classes I signed up for was taught by an attorney and evaluated all the different factors that led up to the crash in 2008. By the end of the day, I felt like I’d been run through a sewer.
He said – and remember, he’s an attorney – that one of the primary problems with our current process is that we elect mostly attorneys to represent us, people who are trained to argue and hold out and not compromise until absolutely essential. He said we need people with varied backgrounds to represent us and that he will never, ever vote for another candidate who is also an attorney.
To get us out of this financial mess we’re in, we need people who can think strategically and make tough decisions, and I think some middle-class moms would be perfect.
And, don’t even get me started on how much I abhor our endless cycle of political campaigning. Amen to time limits on that.
Andra you should run.
Ha. I’m not electable.
Indiana has already taken a step in that direction: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/dick-lugar-richard-mourdock-lugar-loses-indiana-republican-senate-primary_n_1501416.html
“I’ve lived though more than five decades thinking that people are basically decent but after all that has happened and the many facts that have come to light in recent years, I guess I’m pretty naive.” This quote, taken from http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2010/10/the-liars-and-thieves-are-moving-ahead-in-this-country.html could well have been written by me!
Basically, I had my head in the sand about most things political and economic until they directly impacted my life, starting with that 2008 downward spiral. Now (that it’s likely too late to make a personal difference) I do try to pay more attention, and voice my opinion — even if I’m headed into right field! It’s my right and I’d best do it before that right is trampled along with so many others!!
Karen, whenever we decide to engage, we can make a difference wherever we are.
Great and well directed rant.
It’s good that I’ve expended my shrieking ire in private for most of the week leading up to writing this piece.
In 1787, Alexander Tyler made some interesting observations concerning democracies (http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north484.html). We’re at the Apathy to Dependence stage of the process.
And, that’s a perilous place to be.
Unfortunately, the nonincumbents are just as smarmy. Instead of voting the incumbents out, I’d like to see competents voted in. In my house growing up, the only people we hated more than democrats were republicans, and the only people we hated more than republicans were democrats. My parents were hippies. My Dad, God bless him, hates being eligible and in need of social security. His loathing for the government makes him blind to his own poverty (he works as a dishwasher for God’s sake) and need, blind to social justice. All he can see is a corrupt government with an arm in his life. (Noisy groan.)
Jessie, changing the butts in the seats in DC won’t work if we don’t have a major change in law. These people need term limits, and voting them all out is the only way we can make that happen today. It would be quite a statement, and I would hope that mandate would force the newbies to pay attention to our desire for it as voters and pass something going forward that would limit their terms.
You’re right that simply voting these bozos out and replacing them with more bozos is not the answer. But, a grass roots effort to get rid of incumbents would at least alert them that they can no longer cater to their special interest cronies and ignore the average American voter.
And it isn’t limited to stock trading. “Oh, Mr. Business Man from my district? You’d like to build a factory? Well, I’ll get you tax and power exemptions if you buy and build on this specific land that just happens to belong to my wife.”
And, I would like to see the yearly payroll for all the former members of the House and Senate who “retire” with full pay checks FOR LIFE.
Janet, you are so right. This behavior is pervasive, and it isn’t limited to one or two areas.
And, don’t even get me started on all the perks they have that I as an American citizen will NEVER have.
Alas, you didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. Depressing. Let’s band together and have an uprising – an uprising of voters!!!
I wish that would somehow happen, Lori. Americans seem to be a pretty apathetic bunch these days.
Well said Andra. There are a couple of problems (well, probably more than just a few).
More than half of all eligible voters don’t bother (and that’s for the important races, far less for the little elections). When there is talk of throwing the incumbents out, generally it’s not *your* incumbent that you won’t vote for, it’s everybody else’s.
If members of Congress had to actually live within the rules they set up for us, it might change for the better but unfortunately, they’re pretty much exempt from what is legislated for the good of the *common man*.
At the seminar I reference in Cameron’s comment reply above, the instructor pointed out the problem of a voter saying “Incumbent suck….well, except MY incumbent.” They ALL suck. Period.
Making Congress live like the rest of us was eloquently expressed in the Washington Post editorial that went up yesterday. That whole series should win the Pulitzer, and it hasn’t even made a blip on the news wire because it can’t be reduced to a sound byte.
Well, here’s the sound byte. “Throw the incumbents in Congress out!!!”
If you want legislation for the common man, why not have the common man legislate?
I’ve often wondered if serving in DC shouldn’t be a civic duty, where the legislators were chosen by lottery to serve for one year, then went back to their lives, never to serve again.
Yeah, there’s the argument that nothing would get done. But what’s wrong with that? Most of what the people in DC do is wrong, either a desire to be seen “doing something” (no incentive for that nonsense if you’re not elected) or a payoff for those who got you elected (again, no incentive if you’re not elected). For any legislation to be passed, it would have to be a really good idea that was obvious to almost anyone. Would that be a bad thing? Do we need all the laws we have?
Nothing gets done now, Bill. Not really.
One of the primary arguments against Congressional term limits is the amount of time it takes in DC to ‘learn the system’ and ‘build seniority.’
Excuse my language, but that is horse sh**.
If we have created a system that is so convoluted that it takes a decade to learn it, that system needs to go. Make it simpler for everyone, so that they can go up there, serve their allotted time, and go home, never to serve again.
Amen Andra, Amen.
It’s endemic across the world Andra!
I know, Jim. We each have our specific issues, but they all boil down to the same human problem, don’t they?
They do Andra.
To quote the Bard “first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” I am in no way slamming an entire profession but….. Also, if we would outlaw lobbying, our Congress would be a more honest bunch. They sell out to the highest bidder and who gets the profit? The lobbyists! Don’t get me started. Well written and well thought out, Andra. I hope we will live to see change in our lifetime.
The money in politics is the primary corrupting influence, in my view. We definitely need to get the money out of it. But, with the Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding “Corporations are people” and the state of Montana, I really don’t have any hope whatsoever that it will ever happen.
I’m not sure there is any fix for the problem, as it is tied to some pretty base level human nature that can’t be fixed. I foresee things getting much worse before they could even hope to get better.
But, so as my post is not just depressing I leave you with a jumping off point.
The reason the war on drugs hasn’t ever worked is the war has never gone after why there is a demand for them. It hasn’t addressed the reason why people want them, and until it tries to understand that and “fix” that then it really stands no chance of getting anywhere.
The same with politics. Why do the same types of people get drawn into being politicians, what do they hope to gain by it, and how do we make them no longer want to be politicians? A majority of the time they are the ones with the power and resources to get into office, and as long as that is the case, they will be able to easily hold on to that power over top of anyone else. So to get them out we have to make it something they would never want.
In my view, the opportunities for personal gain and monetary enrichment are the reasons people want to run today. Their own special health care system. Lifetime retirement benefits. The ability to retire and take their campaign war chest, set up a political action committee, and pay themselves an obscene salary for life from it. Access to the right places to make the right deals that benefit their bottom lines.
If we take that away and make it about working hard for the people who put them there, I daresay few of the people who are currently there would want the job. We need to make it such that a member of Congress is no different than you or me in any way.
How about the idea of a monastic life? Once they get voted in they give up everything, move into a political monastery. They have robes…all the same, none better than each others. They all eat the same thing, no one special. They all sleep on the same beds. And that is where they live. For their time in they get paid whatever the current average salary for Americans is.
I suspect few would want to serve if that were the case. Maybe that’s a good thing. Getting the money out of it and the perks and making them live like an average American in every way including salary ought to go a long way.
And can you imagine if our politicians had the wisdom of the monks that do live in monasteries?! I mean, what a difference it could make!
I like the idea of turning it into a service type of calling. Living in servitude during your term. Remove the ego.
These people used to be called ‘civil servants.’ There was a reason for that.
Indeed, representatives and servants, of which now they do neither
Politics is a nasty business. I don’t trust either party. It’s just so adversarial and bitter. And the people making decisions are self-serving, by and large.
It should be one term and out. And there shouldn’t be any long-term gain for serving such as pensions or lifetime benefits. It’s no longer service for others, but rather for self.
I think so many people in America feel the same way, but paying attention to it all is so disgusting and frustrating that I think a lot of people just tune it out. If enough people became incensed by it because they paid attention, it would make a difference at the polls.
I think the only way out of this mess is a second revolution. Really, given all stumbling blocks noted here, what other way is there?
I’ve said the same thing to MTM, Liz. It’s a scary thing to think about, isn’t it?
It is indeed, Andra. But sadly, I believe that is where we are and that there’s no other way to effect the type of “radical” (for lack of a better term) change you are espousing. And the irony? It’s not radical at all. It’s common sense and what our founding father intended.
Well, we’re way past common sense in those parts. It’s very, VERY sad.
Not going to happen – we’re already at the apathy and dependence stage. After the collapse perhaps.
*Sigh*……..(she types as she Googles the affordability of houses in Spain……..)
I know you seem to think I like to argue, but just to show that is not what I am all about, I agree COMPLETELY with what you just said.
Except this time it’s the citizenry against its’ own government….still want to hand over those firearms, people?
We luckily have a military made up of the poor, the common man, those without. When things fall apart, they aren’t likely to support those in power unlike what we see in many countries that collapse.
But, ultimately, Kenneth, they take orders from the CIC…..you’d have to have insubordination on a massive scale.
Amazing how power goes to the head. I always remember that bible story where – is it Abraham, who spends ages bartering for the lives of the people of Sodom, yet it’s all in vain because there are not even ten good men there to rescue it. These stories: they have a cyclical truth to them.
It was Lot, Kate. His wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the place when they fled.
It is very strange that we humans cannot seem to learn from those who came before.
60 Minutes did cover this about a year ago…or made an attempt, let’s say. It was the first time I’d ever heard of how Congress is not barred from this if not illegal, unethical behavior. And I’m glad for your links today, because it is possible to take more action if names are associated with the “crimes.” Wake up America? What? Take away time from the Kardashians or The “Real” Housewives? Sadly, I despair at the collective apathy, but it doesn’t have to be contagious. Excellent, excellent toilet references. You’ve got it pegged quite well!! Debra
I’m glad more people are reading the Washington Post series because of this piece, Debra. It deserves so much more play than it’s gotten.
Andra, thanks for your post. I have been thinking the very same thoughts you put here for several years now. I am in total agreement that the bozo’s in Washington need to go. I agree with Liz, in that, it is probably going to take another revolution to shake things up and make the radical changes necessary. How many people do we know that are willing to count the cost, throw all in and do whatever it takes? That is where the rubber meets the road. We all want change and we all understand the problems and what is at stake. Are we willing to make the sacrifice…. Scary stuff indeed…
I hope it never comes to that, James. But, people who are drunk on power and money don’t easily change, do they?
No, you are right, they do not. They have to be forced to change.
It looks as though more things will be coming to light Andra, over the next few months. I’m not at all a political person, but with revelations appearing somewhat daily about the conduct of politicians, bankers, journalists and others, I can sense that change is most definitely on the way. I think what we are seeing now is merely the very tip of the iceberg…
I know you’ve got your share over there, Tom. It’s rampant everywhere.
That’s so appallingly sleazy. I had no idea.
Few people did, apparently.