Comment on Senator Reid said near-Universal Health Care is just weeks away from becoming law by Dave Morgan
Submitted by on Sun, 01/10/2010 - 3:41pm
Hayek: I totally agree. There is a chasm between the public and our elected leaders. A chasm of great magnitude. But whose fault is it? For more years in our history than not, the people of the United States used to gather and debate the great issues of the day. But these days the only gathering the American public seems to do is in a stadium or around a wide screen tv set to watch sports. Or a concert. But Democracy is not…IS NOT a spectator sport. The well-financed special interests fund the vast majority of election campaigns. But then the public has the AUDACITY to complain that “they’re not doing what we elected them to do!!” They’re right! These elected officials are following orders from those who paid for their ride! Yet most Americans childishly cling to the utterly irrational idea that our leaders ought to get themselves elected the best they can, but then do exactly what the public tells them to do.
We have a check-off box on our income tax returns for the Presidential election. It’s time that box include all elected officials. The saying “you get what you pay for” has come home to roost.
The American public ought to demand town hall meetings of their elected officials. Make ‘em talk either on mega-conference calls (as some are already doing) or in person. When all a senator or congressman sees day after day, week after week are the faces of lobbyists or corporations with their hands out, it affects their judgement and view of the world. I also think the location of the District of Columbia ought to be relocated to Colorado. It would give more people and school children a chance to see it more than once before they die.
No…government is not inherently evil. What’s evil is how many Americans are AWOL from their civic duty to be involved and to be active citizens. Citizenship is required every day, not just on election day, which as we have seen too often, as a day our disconnected dysfunction masquerades as an exercise in democracy. To work properly, democracy requires participation, without which it’s always for sale, or at least for rent. And we all get to live in that house. Like it? Keep it! Don’t like it? Get off the couch!
