The Congress

Our Congress is supposedly comprised of elected representatives of the populace, endowed with certain powers to fulfill various responsibilities. It is the heart of the Legislative Branch of the federal government, one of the three key foundational groups establishing the checks and balances of our government. As such, the expectation was that it would exercise its powers to limit the other two branches’ potential for abuse, while in turn, being limited by them.

Over time, however, we, the people, have allowed them — by our blindness, apathy or stupidity — to manipulate their explicit powers to a degree that has both expanded their ability to influence the other two branches and neutralized the ability of the other branches to limit the actions of the Congress.
Let me use an analogy to demonstrate just one way in which this is true.

Imagine you’re the owner of a business, employing workers, providing a product or service with sufficient demand to make the business profitable. From time to time, as any business owner does, you have to make decisions regarding promotions and raises, hires and fires, expansion and shrinking of operations… all the day to day issues that go with the territory.

But suppose that the decisions regarding pay raises aren’t yours. Instead, that power rests with a committee of employees. Their decisions are absolute, with you having no ability to modify or override them when at least 3/4 of them agree.

So one day, this committee decides there should be a limit to the period of time you’re allowed to sit as president of the company. They propose the change, a company-wide vote is held and the vast majority of employees agree. Instead of being in operational control of your company for as long as you own it, you are suddenly able to only sit as the titular head of the company for, say, eight years. After that maximum timeframe, a new president must be selected. However, the members of the committee decide that there shouldn’t be any limitation on how long they can remain on the committee.

See the parallel? This is what our Congress did in 1947 with the 22nd Amendment. Granted, they didn’t do it all alone… 36 of the 48 states at the time had to ratify it. But they successfully excluded themselves from the term limitation. Interestingly, much of the delay in that ratification process stemmed from concerns by many that the Senate and the House of Representatives should also be limited. One Senator considered that lack of Congressional term limits to be “most highly and dangerously oligarchic”. That Senator may have been prescient, judging by the present situation.

It seems that our Congress has the somewhat unique ability to not only eliminate challenges to its own power, but to also bestow special, exclusive benefits and privileges upon its members. In some instances, they’ve managed to provide themselves with benefits not available to the general populace. Some of those benefits may be judged by the average American to be justifiable… many are not. Determining their own pay raises is one (that’s a power granted to them constitutionally, so changing it would require an Amendment). But it adds to the sense of frustration felt by many Americans. And to be fair, there are many citations of a similar nature that are false or exaggerated, yet accepted by many Americans as true.

The bottom line: very few Americans feel that their interests or well-being are being considered by their elected officials, particularly by Congress. And the willingness of the Congress to deliberately set aside the desires of their constituencies to play political roulette doesn’t help. The Senate Judiciary Committee deserves to be driven out of office for their recent shenanigans. Both sides of the aisle are guilty of gross negligence on several fronts. In earlier days, tar and feathers would come into play, and with good cause.

We, the People

The problems here are much easier to identify, although there are many facets. In a nutshell, I think they’re covered by apathy, a lack of belief in the power of the people to affect change, a lack of critical thinking skills, laziness and in some instances, an astounding level of ignorance (if not stupidity). Watching the 2016 electoral process, it occurs to me that there may also be a higher level of stupidity at play than I would have believed.
Let me say here that I fully realize that there are some folks that are not guilty of any of those issues. In fact, there are some that are extremely active in trying to change things, raise awareness or promote others to act. But sadly, there aren’t nearly enough.

At least not yet.

During this campaign between the aspirants to the nomination as their party’s presidential candidate, this has become even more obvious. There seems to be more participation in the rallies and online discussion than in most previous elections, but there’s still a lot of evidence of the same issues: laziness to sort out the fact from fiction and truth from lies, apathy in accepting some very serious flaws in the moral makeup of some of the candidates, acceptance of same-old, same-old, and a lack of critical thinking. Too many people that do seem interested are willing to let others do their thinking for them. Oh, and the bit about stupidity… apparently, that’s contagious, and may be reaching pandemic status.

You

Want to know if you’re part of the problem or part of the solution?
• If you’re willing to unquestioningly accept virtually any statement that supports your pre-existing opinion, you’re part of the problem.
• If you’re too lazy to research the candidates and their platform, you’re part of the problem.
• If you’re willing to accept that “this is just politics” and as such, is inevitable, you’re part of the problem.
• If you’re willing to abdicate your vote to the established “party line”, you’re part of the problem.
• If you’re ignorant of the issues, that can be corrected, with a little effort. Until then, you’re part of the problem.
• If you’re stupid, then I’m afraid you’re stuck with being part of the problem. I think (hope?) you’re in the minority.

The last item, stupidity, is the only one that you don’t have the power to correct — you have the ability to rectify all the others. If you lack the motivation to do so, then I strongly suggest you fix that. Because the 2016 election may be one of the most important decisions made in our country in generations. It will, without a doubt, have the potential to dramatically affect the lives of you and those you care about.
If you’re either one of the few that is actively seeking to solve the problem, or are willing and able to recognize your part in the problem and fix it, then you can be part of the solution.
In short, this election isn’t about Republican or Democrat. It isn’t about this candidate or that. It isn’t about Muslim or Christian, gay or straight, 1% or 99%. It isn’t about any particular issue.

It’s about all of us! It’s about you!