I’ve heard many people sigh and say that this has been the longest election they can ever remember. It seems to have taken on a life of its own, and heavy duty campaigning seems to have begun long before the usual big kick off.
We may all be sick of hearing these candidates’ names by the time the election is finally over. It’s already to the point that useless information is handed out, just to make mention of a candidate, if it happens to be a slow news day.
While election burnout has begun to effect people, there is another issue that we should examine. Those who are running currently also happen to hold positions, paid positions, in Congress. We have three senators and a representative (Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, Senator McCain, and Congressman Ron Paul). They aren’t on the Hill doing the people’s work, at least not as often, because they are busy campaigning. And, they have been campaigning for what seems like forever.
How do you feel about paying the salary of an elected official who might as well be on leave? Should they have to go on leave in order to hit the campaign trail?
It’s not just these particular candidates either. It seems to me that too many officials spend their entire careers in office working to be re-elected or running for another office, instead of doing what they are paid to do.
Maybe it’s a good thing that nothing is getting done, since much of what has been enacted in recent history is changing America, and not for the better.
We have officials who admittedly sign legislation without having read it and those who rarely show up to vote at all. We have a lot of back-scratching… I’ll scratch yours, if you scratch mine… wherein legislation is voted on favorably in order to get another member of Congress to help pass that lawmaker’s piece of legislation.
Yet, all of this continues as if it’s the way it is supposed to be. Business as usual. And we keep voting for these people.
This is not the government of the people, by the people, for the people, that our forefathers had in mind. This is not the type of government we should have if those entrusted with power honor their oaths to defend the Constitution.
So, what are we going to do about it?