"We the people" are losing - (elected representatives serving special interests, not people)

OPINION EDITORIALS.COM ^ | APRIL 19, 2005 | JOHN TRUCANO

[CHARLITE]

When Abraham Lincoln declared that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the earth, he could not have anticipated the times we live in. A time when politicians would allow themselves to be corrupted by money from the rich and powerful, whose desire is to stomp all over the rights of we the people.

We the people, the citizenry, once the most powerful in this nation, have become the least powerful, and now the despised. Money is the name of the game, and money means power, and we the people have increasingly less and less of it, and our voices are being silenced. We the people are losing.

Credit card companies have stuffed the pockets of politicians for over 8 years to push through radical changes in the bankruptcy laws. This amounts to a basic denial of relief for most Americans. Interestingly, these changes to not apply to businesses filing bankruptcy, with their so called reorganization plans that allow them to walk away from their debts, often forgiving millions of dollars, which is hundreds of times higher than most personal bankruptcy filings. Did anyone find it strange to hear the sound bites of congressman lecturing us about how we need a return to personal responsibility? Is this not slightly hypocritical coming from scandal riddled congress? Are they really the best to lecture us on personal responsibility, or to lecture professional baseball players on ethics as they attempted to in their recent self righteous committee meetings concerning steroids?

As spring approaches and warmer weather nears, people begin to think of the upcoming travel season, and just like clockwork, gas prices begin to soar. We’re given lame excuses every year for why this happens, and now that the oil companies have congress securely in their back pocket, they don’t find it necessary to even offer that. Why is it if it is a simple matter of supply and demand, that they cannot anticipate the increased demand and increase production to meet it? It’s not brain surgery, increased travel occurs at the same time every year. Yet when we ask our congress to at least look into this matter, into the possibility that we may be being fleeced, they say there’s nothing they can do. They won’t even consider the possibility. Yes, this same congress that can micromanage our lives, and stick their noses into our personal business, and invade our privacy from our bedrooms to our boardrooms, suddenly when it comes to high gas prices they say there’s nothing they can do. Oh, really?

Could it be that as we the people become weaker and weaker, the special interests become stronger and stronger as they line their favorite congressmen’s pocket with their money? Could it also be that it’s gotten to the point that congress is no longer afraid to face us at the polls because they know their re-election can be assured by those whom they are actually representing?

It’s time for action. It’s time for us to exert the only power we have left and that is at the ballot box. Resist the slick campaign ads of the special interests candidate and vote them all out. It’s all we can do. We must do it before it’s too late, before we’re forced to say we’re not losing the battle, we’ve lost. Let’s we the people take back our nation.

[MD_Willington_1976]

""We the people" are losing - (elected representatives serving special interests, not people)"

Took them how long to figure that out?...I've been here 5 years and I knew it from day 1...

[kaktuskid]

As spring approaches and warmer weather nears, people begin to think of the upcoming travel season, and just like clockwork, gas prices begin to soar. We’re given lame excuses every year for why this happens, and now that the oil companies have congress securely in their back pocket, they don’t find it necessary to even offer that. Why is it if it is a simple matter of supply and demand, that they cannot anticipate the increased demand and increase production to meet it? It’s not brain surgery, increased travel occurs at the same time every year. Yet when we ask our congress to at least look into this matter, into the possibility that we may be being fleeced, they say there’s nothing they can do. They won’t even consider the possibility. Yes, this same congress that can micromanage our lives, and stick their noses into our personal business, and invade our privacy from our bedrooms to our boardrooms, suddenly when it comes to high gas prices they say there’s nothing they can do. Oh, really?

Two words..."BANANA" and "NIMBY"

[DustyMoment]

We should begin to halt this trend by repealing the 17th Amendment.

[mathluv]

Each and evry one of us is part of a special interest - probably more than one.

[sirthomasthemore]

We were almost there in 1994. Newt is a great conservative, but in the Contract with America, the one item that he didn't follow through on was the most important: term limits, imo.

In Ct- we're stuck with Dodd, Lieberman (not too bad) and Shays- and they aren't going anywhere until they retire.

Actually, if you could get a common sense guy like Zell Miller- instead of Ross "Wingnut" Perot, to run as a conservative independent- we (voters) could get the attention of the smug crowd in DC.

[Chris_Shugart]

The "special interest" alarm is a red herring. Every single voter when they walk into the booth is at the very least a special interest of one. Should others share your views on a particular issue, you have a special interest group. The politician who claims to have no "special interests" I find the most suspect. And I also suspect all those special interest groups who, out of the pure goodness of their hearts, seek to eliminate special interest groups.

[tacticalogic]

Representatives have always belonged to some interest group. Their profession, their religion, whatever.

That is a factor only insofar as they vote on things affecting the interest groups they belong to. Many times they vote on things that are not. In these cases their decisions will be affected by the people he meets expressing their opinions. In these situations access is the issue. Lobbying is a way of life in DC, and I think much of the unnecessary growth of the federal govenrment is because of the influence of special interest groups, not the least of which is the federal bureaucracy itself.

[Iscool]

Actually, if you could get a common sense guy like Zell Miller- instead of Ross "Wingnut" Perot, to run as a conservative independent- we (voters) could get the attention of the smug crowd in DC.

Obviously you didn't vote for Perot...I did...With Perot, we wouldn't now have open borders and we wouldn't have Nafta and the WTO...

You made a mistake...Don't blame Perot...

[floriduh voter]

Special Interests Not People Example:

download and email. These people should lose their jobs. Senator Jim King told them to vote against Terri and they did.

[sirthomasthemore]

Hi Iscool,

No I didn't vote for Perot. Reasonably, how could anyone vote for him when he put Stockdale (?) on his ticket.

Perot's strong suit, and what made him appealing, was that he was an outsider, who could have carried the message that he was coming in to DC for one purpose and one purpose only-to audit the books. That he was going to lay bare to Americans where their money was being wasted, and who was wasting it.

But, both parties went negative, and then by his actions, he reinforced that negative depiction of himself.

In 1994, Newt was astute enough to pick up the Perot people with the Contract with America- but then Newt imploded by immediately alienating those people with his book deal, and, failing to follow through on term limits.

From reading the Board, I think there remain a majority of people who are upset with campaign rhetoric populist politicians, who succumb to special interests as soon as they hit DC and either cash in and/or wimp out.

That malaise is still out here, ready to be tapped into. People want a no nonsense, common sense populist with a backbone who will put this country back on course. A Zell Miller type can do it- A Tom Delay, from an executive position (Governor)might be able to do it- whether or not any such leader is out there is an open question.