What are the biggest reasons we’ve got a dysfunctional government? And, no, it’s not really Democrat vs. Republican; liberal vs. conservative; left vs. right. Those have been with our country since its founding. It’s a good thing to have two sides to an argument; otherwise you get virtual dictatorships.
Amongst the many reasons for the dysfunction, the two biggest are that politicians have forgotten their true function and they’ve abrogated their core responsibilities. We need to get them back to doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
What is their true function? It’s straightforward: to represent the people in their voting district – to be the voice of the people. Contrary to popular belief the USA is not a democracy; we’re a constitutional federal republic. That means we elect folks to represent us. The folks we elect are supposed to represent our viewpoint in all discussions and vote in a way they think most of the people they represent would want them to vote.
It’s not to see how much tax money they can bring back to their district. It’s not to have businesses locate in their district, when the business would rather be elsewhere because of economics. It’s not to have worthless projects funded in their districts. But, if you listen to incumbents you would think that they think that’s what their there for.
But this is what they now do. Go on to an incumbents WEB site and they’ll brag about money and projects brought back to their districts. It doesn’t matter to them that often the money is wasted and the projects are worthless. But today’s politician will tell you that “we’ve brought jobs and money to our district”. Nevermind that it was our own money to begin with. It’s like paying your kid to mow your own lawn and then bragging about how much money the kid added to the household income.
We also did not elect them to create agencies that allow them to deflect blame for unpopular decisions. Politicians have created a web of bureaucracies that pass de facto laws called regulations. If you don’t like having to take your car in to have a pollution inspection, don’t blame lawmakers – blame the EPA. The EPA wrote those nasty regulations, the politicians didn’t VOTE for them! Pretty neat trick, no?
Should politicians sometimes vote contrary to popular opinion? Yes, but not often. What they should do is go back to their constituents and cajole them in to changing what they believe to be right. The Civil Rights act would probably not have passed in the ‘60’s if politicians had voted the way most constituents would have initially wanted them to. In that case it’s fine for them to vote contrary to popular opinion – if they have the guts. They just need to go back to their constituents and tell them why it was right to do so and then face the consequences.
Politicians should also take back the power from the various agencies they’ve created and handed their power to. How? By the simple expedient of making the agency get approval from the lawmaking bodies for all regulations they want to enact or change.
Some agencies have a modicum of constraint, but these constraints are applied arbitrarily and are, at times, merely symbolic. For instance, some agencies are required to ask for public comment on proposed regulations, but they don’t have to do anything even if 100% of the comments are against the proposal: they can still pass the regulation.
Our government now largely functions on the whims and caprices of unelected bureaucrats. It’s a dangerous way to govern; or, more accurately, to not govern.
And these unelected bureaucrats are often installed by the current President based on political favors owed, or their political ideology. Many new regulations are not offered or passed to make the country better, they are driven by the ideology of the bureaucrat.
It’s time we forced our elected officials back on job. Yes, having to vote on every law or regulation is time-consuming and hard work. But, they ran for the office willingly. They should accept the responsibilities of the office they sought.
We need get back to governing the country with the voice of the people as the guiding force. We need our elected representatives performing their core functions or we will continue down a rabbit-hole. We’ll have more regulations passed by unelected bureaucrats driven by ideology – not by what’s in the best interest of the country.
Let’s start holding our representatives accountable and vote for the ones who are willing to do their jobs.