FIXING POLITICS

To begin with Politics can NOT be fixed!! Politics brings out the worst in even the best people. By its very nature it creates an environment that is corrupting. Power and money are so seductive to the base nature of man. You add to it the (24) hour media scrutiny measuring every syllable of every word for a mistake to the newest cesspool of mistrust and you have the perfect storm. But in spite of all this and while we acknowledge that there is no perfect system of government we can only hope to work for continual improvement. To put into place laws and rules that defend good from the prostitution of our ethics. I might say here that all laws, or at least the vast majority of them, have been created and implemented to do good and it has been the malicious or misguided use of them that has cause the erosion of our democracy. As for the limited amount of bad laws passed, these were simply done by bad people which are an unfortunately part of mankind. I would like to think that these aberrations can be corrected over a period of time.

What we can do is change the obvious flaws that aid in the destructive and abusive trend in our democracy. Currently the whole point of government and governing is to get re-elected! Be it Democrats or Republicans or even lunatic fringe the only goal is to get re-elected no matter the cost in ethics, money or good. Do whatever, say whatever, truth, exaggeration or lie that accomplishes that end. So, the prime directive would be to remove as much as possible of those factors. To do this the first and most important change would be TERM LIMITS.

TERM LIMITS: This would be throughout all government, both Federal and State. I would think at a Federal level the limits should be as follows: Senate, (4) year terms with a limit of two and in the House of Representatives, a (3) year term with a limit of three. In the House this would attempt to alleviate the continual campaigning with terms of two years. At least now they could get 5 years of work done. One from the first term, one from the second and 3 from the third since they couldn’t be re-elected. This would allow elected officials to gain experience but not become overly indebted to fundraising or become too powerful with a steady new makeup of new people populating the legislative body. The President would be limited to ONE (6) year term. No re-election to consider, the only consideration would hopefully be, what would be best for the country and his/her legacy. While you can’t remove the corruption, power has on all of us you can limit it by limiting terms. This is a must if any real progress is to be made.

NO SUPERPACS: These are simply ways for a few rich corporations or individuals to buy legislative votes. Senators and Representatives should vote on what their constituents want, or what their beliefs support but not because they OWE a contributor. Contributions would be limited by individual contributions, which would be public. Campaign contribution laws would be scrutinized closely. A person’s individual liberty does not entitle you to ‘buy’ an election just as your freedom of speech does not allow you to “holler fire in a crowded theatre”. This would limit campaign spending which currently is the measure for a successful candidate. There needs to be a top end limit on spending on each race. So, a House race would be X dollars and a Senate race would be Y dollars (being Statewide vs. a District. Wiser people than me should decide on those limits but there should be limits!

NO FILURBUSTER: This has always been an antiquated gimmick that was made easy by a boy’s club agreement. To delay or derail a piece of legislation that the majority wants by silly games is beneath the seriousness of the tasks at hand and has no place in a real democracy by any party or any person. Thus, a simple majority in each body would pass legislation.

NO JERRYMANDERING: The practice of selectively drawing congressional districts that look like a “four fingers and a thumb of a hand” by the party in control to insure the election that party’s candidate is wrong and has no place in a fair and equitable democracy. Panels in each state would be assigned by an independent source with no political affiliation. They would draw districts as fairly as possible not by micro analysis of a million past tendencies, voting records, or surveys of the people who live there but by population and fairness.

NO LOBBYIST: The excuse is that our elected officials need these people to help them understand the problems and consequences of their decisions. I don’t buy that and the companies who have and or hire “lobbyist” are paying people to wine and dine elected officials. I’m sure any questions could and should be answered at public hearings. Again, this would remove a layer of money out of the equation. This will not stop corruption but remove one possible off ramp to it.

SUPREME COURT: Here again term limits are needed. “Position for Life” are too absolute and are unnecessary. The Court should not be turned into a third legislative concern. Recently the Supreme Court has been politicized while the real intent was to make them the ultimate referee in settling disputes. I’m not advocating any change in number of Justices but all new appointees would be for (9) years with the Chief Justice’s term being (11). Current Justices tenure would be limited at these same guidelines from adoption of this change. This would allow for consistency but make change possible. At the same time no President could appoint more than (2) Justices during his term. All Federally appointed Judges would also be limited to (7) year tenures. All vacant positions would be required to be filled by year end so that the Senate could not drag their feet waiting for potential election changes. Again, the ultimate goal is to take the politics out of our judicial system.

NO JUNKETS: This is a personal rub of mine and very minimal in the big picture of everything talked about previously. We do not need to pay for our elected officials to vacation. Trips to Europe or the Far East are all to common for some very vague reasons and opportunities. In the future trips would be limited and required to be published in the elected official’s State newspapers outlining the justification, the cost, and the duration as well as who attended. This would at least limit trips and hopefully make unnecessary trips a common campaign issue. Everybody loves a free vacation but resents when it’s not theirs but they have to pay for it.

These are just some simple and obvious ideas and I’m sure there needs to be more. Think how just with these few changes we could impact our Democracy and make it better.