When we say our vote counts, it is natural for us to be thinking in terms of being heard more than in terms of the actual counting of the ballots. All of us have ideas about how things should be working in the United States of America and our Constitution mandates that our ideas are supposed to be considered in the affairs of our government.
When we think about it, as citizens we vote for three different categories of candidates to act in our behalf in running our government: The President, the Senators from our State and the Representative from our Congressional District. Each of these persons is our agent as well as the agent of everyone else in the jurisdiction. The President is the agent for every citizen in the United States of America. A Senator is the agent of every citizen in their State and the Representative is the agent of every citizen in their Congressional District.
The point is this. Most of us pay more attention to the presidential election than we do to the election of our Senators or Representatives. In fact, most of us don’t know much about the voting record of either our Senators or Representative even though they have a greater interest in our ideas than does the President. Interestingly, many citizens decide to participate or not participate in our elections based on the character of the presidential election.
Our motivations are misguided. We need only look to our present fiscal cliff to see that the root of our problem is our Representatives and our Senators. Speaker Boehner would have us believe that the President is the problem, but don’t you believe it. If the House of Representatives would simply pass a bill to avert the fiscal cliff we would be on our way to a solution. If the House of Representatives would pass the bill sent over from the Senate to make the so called Bush tax cuts permanent for the first $250,000 of income, we would be on our way to a solution. If the House of Representatives could put together a veto-proof majority for doing anything productive, we would be on our way to a solution.
None of these things are happening because the ideologues are still refusing to compromise for the good of our country.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken – will you help to fix it?
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