Our Democracy Isn’t Working
2 Comments Published March 9th, 2010 in National and International Issues.New York’s Massa is one more item of evidence.
Louisiana re-elected “Cold Cash” Jefferson every two years since 1990 and it took a video-taped $100,000 bribe payoff and a federal grand jury to get rid of him. The Governor of Illinois had to try to auction off an appointment to a US Senate seat before he was finally booted out of office. But then, Utah keeps re-electing Hatch – so we’re guilty too.
Now, New York’s Eric Massa has resigned under fire. He’s given three different explanations (health reasons, to avoid an ethics investigation for propositioning a male staffer, and most recently, because the Democratic leadership wants to get rid of him). He’s quoted as calling the While House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a “son of the devil’s spawn.” (Actually, if rumors are to be believed, he’s not the son – just a drinking buddy.)
This keeps happening! It happens so much … Doesn’t it make you wonder about the kind of people who are still there passing laws? I know I do.
I was happy when New York’s Rangel was forced to give up his grip on the enormous power of the House Ways and Means committee. But I can’t forget that Wilbur Mills held that job for thirty-six years until he was caught dancing in the Tidal Basin with stripper Fanne Foxe, “the Argentine Firecracker”. The good folks of Arkansas had given him a resounding victory in his most recent election. After him, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois was the House Ways and Means Chairman until he was forced out of it when he was indicted on corruption charges for his role in the House post office scandal. Counting all three, the most powerful committee in the Congress – the one that writes our tax laws – was controlled by proven crooks and nut cases 64 percent of the time.
How much does it take to convince people that something is seriously wrong?
In my blog, Rescuing Democracy: The “Town Meeting” Model, I suggest that maybe we need to adjust the way we elect people in this country. In brief, I think that this idea that we get as many people as possible to go out and vote might be part of the problem.
“A vote for me is a vote for Christ!”
“Your vote can stop liberals from taking away your personal Hellfire missile.”
“Eliminate all taxes with your vote!”
So … if you don’t like my idea, how do you want to start electing people who don’t have a serious personality disorder?
Maybe another way of looking at the problem would be to ask How do we go about selecting (not electing) people who might be considered electable ? Are these people really chosen way down at the neighborhood committee meetings. Or does something happen as these people climb the political ladder so that a lot of really good leaders are lost in the shuffle? Lena
That’s exactly the point.
The “gravel pit theory” – stated very simply – is that anybody that you would actually want to be elected gets “screened out” – like a rock that’s the wrong size – by a process that forces people to sell their soul to win elections. Nobody worth electing is willing to do that over and over.