
Sadly, our system doesn't work that way. In a democratic republic such as ours if our leaders are left totally to their own viewpoint it will likely become very corrupt, in fact, it already has. From a government founded by our Founders until today, the way our nation's government operates is largely alien to its foundation. Interest groups and wealthy individuals use their wealth and assets to lobby our representatives to do their bidding, something which is often quite contrary to what we as "flyover country" citizens believe. And with a President like Obama who clearly thinks he is above the law, they sometimes think it is more advantageous for them to go along with his edicts than to demand what we have elected them to do. After all they can maintain their individual status and perks and, of course, they aren't subjected to the same controls and constraints that are foisted upon us.
If we are happy with that, well, I guess we'll get what we deserve. And gradually over time we will continue to lose our individual rights and freedoms and become more and more dependent on a leviathan state apparatus which takes all that we have and leaves us with morsels to survive on. There is another way.
Vow to get involved and active. Pay attention to what is going on in Washington and let them hear loudly what you think. There are many ways to do this: write letters, send emails, even place phone calls to your elected representatives and ban together with those of like mind to keep it going at all times of year, not just during election season. Some have done this with some positive results, but it will take many more working together for those things that they have in common. While there is much disagreement in this country, there is much more that we agree on and we must labor to identify and find these issues and bring them forward.
Just think if millions of citizens became active, calling or writing their representatives weekly and challenging them on the issues. That kind of action would make voter polls meaningless, for politicians get truly concerned when the people realize what is actually taking place.
The politicians are banking on us losing interest and going back to your daily business, leaving them to do what they want while we think they are representing our best interests. If they were doing that we certainly wouldn't be faced with a situation where our politicians live in luxury with guaranteed pay checks and regular increases that they vote for themselves, excellent benefits that we can only dream of and a work schedule which is almost like a week off after a weekend of work. And we wouldn't have nearly $18T in debt that we can't pay of and nearly $120T in unfunded liabilities because they spent the money instead of placing it in the "mythical lock box". We deserve better and we need to demand it.
The American system was established assuming that we the people would be represented by citizen-legislators who served a term, then returned home to be replaced by other citizen-legislators. There wasn't supposed to be any such thing as a career politician with a life of luxury and limousines. It has become the way that it is because we the people have become lazy, haven't stayed up on the issues and problems and have just let the politicians set the agenda.
It's time for us to set the agenda. Read, pay attention, get involved and let them know regularly what we expect from them for the privilege of serving us. Let them serve us, not tell us what they are going to do to us. If we operate in this fashion, which takes activity and interface with them by each of us, they will respond. The one thing more important to them than campaign money is votes and if they can be shown that we have the votes, we will get what we expect.
Think about it, devise your own plan, activate it, and stay the course week in and way out. Let's show them that we are in charge and will be watching like a hawk. It has worked to kill disastrous pieces of legislation such as past amnesty bills and it will work going forward. Put our past success mechanism on steroids and let's go get them.
Onward, Patriots. Let's make D.C. our oyster, not theirs.