Broken Government
Today being Halloween, scary things are often the theme of the day. I can think of nothing scarier than the future of our country with our government in place.
Its no secret that Americans are fed up with George Bush. I have become skeptical of the war, not because I don't think we can win in Iraq, but because the president continues with his stay the course message, but can you remember the last time he told us what victory really meant? I have no idea what our goals are in Iraq.
But whats more troubling to me is the way we have lost control of congress. The republicans came in in 1994, led by Newt Gingrich and vowed to reform washington and reign in spending. They had the contract with america, which I was skeptical of at the time, and in hindsight, I wish some of the provisions in the contract had become law. They proposed things like term limits, a balanced budget amendment and so forth. Then a funny thing happened. A guy named Tom Delay rose to power, and he began jury rigging the system to his advantage. He punished congressmen who defied him, controlled the parties votes so that they would be representing him, and not their constituents, pushed the K street project so that Republican lobbyists would gain more power, and during this time government spending spiralled out of control, so much so that even conservatives are turned off and fed up. And all this has happened with one party in control, the party thats supposed to be one of fiscal discipline.
The sad thing is, I don't believe the democratic party really provides a good alternative. One good thing is that if Democrats win congress, one party will not control all of washington, and things seem to get done more that way from my experience. Nancy Pelosi would become speaker of the house, and that worries me. I am not real comfortable with the thought of a San Francisco liberal leading our country, since I believe that our country is more moderate. And with all the screw ups the republican party has made, I have heard nothing but criticism from the Democratic party, with no real ideas. To me, that means more business as usual.
And nothing will change soon. Despite people being fed up with congress, about 400 congressman will get relected easily. This troubles me deeply. One thing is that the parties control the way congressional lines are drawn, they purposely redraw districts to protect incumbents. Another thing, people don't like congress, but they don't believe their own representative is part of the problem. And now that there are over 40,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, many of whom are former congressman, they will ensure the power stays with the powerful, and not the people, and this is not what the founding fathers wanted at all. The sad thing is, the corporations seem to have all the power. But not a single corporation has a single vote in elections, not one. Its pathetic that groups that don't have votes control all the agenda.
I pray that some day we will wake up and send a real message that we want change. I think it will take a third party someday, but for this party to get its message heard, thats always the tricky part. But it will happen, it has to happen, otherwise this country will continue down the road of outsourcing jobs, especially engineering and technology jobs, since manufacturing jobs have all but been eliminated from this country.
Its no secret that Americans are fed up with George Bush. I have become skeptical of the war, not because I don't think we can win in Iraq, but because the president continues with his stay the course message, but can you remember the last time he told us what victory really meant? I have no idea what our goals are in Iraq.
But whats more troubling to me is the way we have lost control of congress. The republicans came in in 1994, led by Newt Gingrich and vowed to reform washington and reign in spending. They had the contract with america, which I was skeptical of at the time, and in hindsight, I wish some of the provisions in the contract had become law. They proposed things like term limits, a balanced budget amendment and so forth. Then a funny thing happened. A guy named Tom Delay rose to power, and he began jury rigging the system to his advantage. He punished congressmen who defied him, controlled the parties votes so that they would be representing him, and not their constituents, pushed the K street project so that Republican lobbyists would gain more power, and during this time government spending spiralled out of control, so much so that even conservatives are turned off and fed up. And all this has happened with one party in control, the party thats supposed to be one of fiscal discipline.
The sad thing is, I don't believe the democratic party really provides a good alternative. One good thing is that if Democrats win congress, one party will not control all of washington, and things seem to get done more that way from my experience. Nancy Pelosi would become speaker of the house, and that worries me. I am not real comfortable with the thought of a San Francisco liberal leading our country, since I believe that our country is more moderate. And with all the screw ups the republican party has made, I have heard nothing but criticism from the Democratic party, with no real ideas. To me, that means more business as usual.
And nothing will change soon. Despite people being fed up with congress, about 400 congressman will get relected easily. This troubles me deeply. One thing is that the parties control the way congressional lines are drawn, they purposely redraw districts to protect incumbents. Another thing, people don't like congress, but they don't believe their own representative is part of the problem. And now that there are over 40,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, many of whom are former congressman, they will ensure the power stays with the powerful, and not the people, and this is not what the founding fathers wanted at all. The sad thing is, the corporations seem to have all the power. But not a single corporation has a single vote in elections, not one. Its pathetic that groups that don't have votes control all the agenda.
I pray that some day we will wake up and send a real message that we want change. I think it will take a third party someday, but for this party to get its message heard, thats always the tricky part. But it will happen, it has to happen, otherwise this country will continue down the road of outsourcing jobs, especially engineering and technology jobs, since manufacturing jobs have all but been eliminated from this country.