THIRD POST IN THIS SERIES - CONSIDERING THOSE ELEMENTS WITHIN OR RELATED TO THE ELECTION PROCESS THAT NEED ADJUSTING.
Sticking with the election element - MONEY and closely related items, lets pick up our discussion from the Second Post.
EVERYBODY ELSE DOES IT!
How do you honestly feel about this scenario:
Four people are still in the race for President of U.S.A. as of this writing. Three of the four are Senators. Lets just interject something here - to our knowledge, not one of these three have taken a temporary leave of absence and asked that therefore their Senators salary be suspended during the time they were campaigning.
Can you imagine having a boss who would say to you, “John/Mary, I understand you want to leave your job for six to twelve months and you would also like to have your salary continued during this time and that is just fine.” Right!
He or She would probably say, depending on your position and how well you were performing your job, “we can work around your absenteeism for that period, but you will need to find and interview a replacement for that period, because after all if we could get along without you for six months we probably don’t need that job slot anymore - somebody has to take your place while you are gone, and obviously, we will not pay you any compensation for that period.
What do we in essence say as the boss - we the taxpayers paying the Senators salary - no problem! We’ll continue to pay you while you are not on the job and perhaps implied, we say - we don’t need to replace you for that period of time because you’re not …… (you fill in the blanks).
In conclusion with this particular scenario - there are three Senators, absent from the job they were hired to do and campaigning for President while collecting their regular salary from we the taxpayers for that job they are not doing, all running against a fourth person who is paying his own way to run for President. It is kind of hard to believe this isn’t an excerpt from some novel.
KEY POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. All who run for an elected office need to be on a level playing field in terms of money expenditures during the campaigning process.
Why is this important? The amount of money spent should not be a factor in such matters as for example electing a President of the U.S.. We the people have a much higher standard - we want any candidate to fully disclose who he or she is, what do they stand for, what is their track record, why they think they could lead our country, and a summary of their plan for action over the term of their Presidency.
(This point will be expanded upon in the next POST)
2. Something that follows closely with the MONEY issue is TERM in office.
Why is this important? If for example, all members of Congress would be employed for a seat in either the Senate or the House for just one term (six years?) and couldn’t run for any other office during that time without resigning and being replaced, that would fix the present day problem.
It also would eliminate all that ‘away from the job’ campaigning for re-election, probably eliminate a lot ‘pork barreling’ and result in a much more productive Congress.
(This point will be expanded upon in latter POSTS)
There are other issues besides these two that are in need of some attention and we will get to those as we proceed.
Again, you comments are extremely important, so please be sure and go to the comments section and let us know what you are thinking.
Make it a great day - every day and may God bless all your efforts.
Russ Brown
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2 Comments
I have written to our “Senator” John McCain on at least three occasions over the past year concerning his almost total absence from his swore duty to represent his constituents “to the best of his ability”.
My letters were respectful but firm in my concern that we have only one Senator representing us for a prolonged period of time. To the best of my recollections, he has only made about a half-dozen attempts to vote during his campaign for President. I believe he has made a statement that “I will vote on important issues – or issues where my vote will make a difference”. That being said, I guess the Congress has brought about a half-dozen “important issues up for a vote over the past year or more? In my opinion his attitude “cheapens” the office of Senator and Representative of the People. To date, I have received no answer from the McCain offices.
As I did not receive an answer from the McCain camp, I escalated my concerns to the Republican National Committee. Likewise, no answer has been received.
Presidential elections are not “Of the People, By the People, or For the People”. They are controlled by, and for, the Republican and Democratic Committees. They control local, state, and national elections. Don’t believe me? Look up the current rules for delegates and super-delegates. See if you can find “wiggle room” for an Independent Candidate to fairly win any National election. Won’t happen.
I’m convinced that another decade or two of RNC/DNC chicanery will, little by little, eradicate many of the remaining democratic freedoms we have left. They (look up who the RNC and DNC leadership is) firmly control the economic and judicial processes to a point that an honest, middle class person does not stand a chance. Like other rulers in past history (Rome, Germany, China, South America’s, etc.), we are destined for only two classes of people. Those few that control all the money - and those that have nothing.
The sad thing is, that most Americans don’t pay enough attention to even see it happening right in front of them. Far to many people will chose a candidate this election purely based on gender, religion, or race. Of the three major candidates left, the American people have absolutely no say in future decisions on the “war”, or on Illegal Immigration. Clinton, Obama, and McCain all support maintaining a conflict in the middle-East because it financially benefits the majority of their biggest campaign contributors, and they support amnesty because there is a huge voting block (legal and illegal voters) that can effect their election. Majority rules? Not in this lifetime!
I agree that we should have “term limits” but disagree that reps should be held to one 6 year term. The founders of our country wanted 2 year terms because they wanted the reps to be closer to the people (hence there are more reps than senators) and wanted shorter terms to more specifically reflect the will of the people.
Regarding money spent on campaigns, I completely disagree that it should be limited, or that some committee pick the candidates and allow only those candidates to run. If we think we have a mess now, wait until that idea is adopted. I believe a better way would be to mandate that all contributions be made public w/i a very short period of time. That would allow all to inspect where the money was coming from and whether there was any quid pro quo.