Presidential and vice presidential candidates from both parties are angry at Washington, even more than the rest of us, which is odd, since all four of the current runners have benefited greatly from the District of Confusion during their careers.
Both parties say we need change. But change often comes at the end of the stick of nasty necessity and sometimes feels like a poke in the eye with a cattle prod.
A stroll down Wall Street reveals how the mighty have fallen – as have our savings and faith and trust in almost every kind of institution. MAny leaders and some CEO’s have acted like George C. Scott playing the Mordecai Jones in the old movie, The Flim Flam Man.
We need a playbook just to keep up with the failures of banks and failures of leadership day after day. Meet the new economy, smaller than the old economy.
Been to the grocery store recently? Paid attention to the size of the products? How about restaurants? Companies are reducing sizes instead of raising prices. Cereal boxes are smaller. So are ice cream containers. Dreyer’s even wrote a letter to consumers saying it was chopping their gallon container down to 1.5 quarts instead of raising prices to around $8. Same with peanut butter and mayonnaise. Everything costs the same but you get less. Hellava deal, huh?
But as taxpayers, citizens and consumers, we’re used to that by now. It’s our job. Did someone give us all a membership in The Disaster of the Month Club? No. It’s The Disaster of the Hour Club.
When it’s all said and ignored, here’s the theme of this commentary: Whomever you vote for, make sure the elected is not a liar. Make sure the people who lead us are smarter than we are and at least as honest. Make sure they deliver all of that promised change we hear from both camps, because we are in need of 5,000 aircraft carriers-full. Make sure they don’t spend your tax dollars without saying please or showing why. Make sure they are willing to do what they are asking you and your children to do. Make sure they don’t make the air we breathe and the water we drink into a political debate. What if you and I and all of the other taxpayers were the most powerful lobbyist group in D.C.?
For the last few years, we’ve been having a fire sale on hypocrisy, so let’s accomplish one mission: Let’s at least hold our leaders to the same standards in which we hold our children in public schools across this high stakes-testing country. Let’s make sure the government does their job before they come looking to tell you and me how to live our personal lives. And let’s remember that Jesus was the first one to separate church and state (“Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s.”)
Here’s how George Washington thought elections should work: Whoever wins gets to be president and the second banana is the VP. Make the winner and the runner up work together to represent us. The candidates don’t get a choice. Neither does their political party or lobbyists or handlers or rich donors. It’s our choice. We pay the bills and shed the blood. They are there because we don’t have time to do our jobs and theirs too, so we hired them as our representatives. It’s time to start representing.
Tags: Government, In The News