Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no such thing. There are no quick fixes for problems as huge and as complex as the ones facing us today. What has grown over a period of 200+ years, and has been especially exacerbated during the past 30 years, cannot be solved in just a few years.
Treat the Problem, Not the Symptoms. You can't get rid of weeds simply by cutting off their leaves or branches, or even their stalks. You have to attack them at their roots. And that is what we have to do here. We cannot afford to accept just piecemeal solutions. We need to get to the root of the problems, starting with Congress. Corporations are not on this list at this point, because, if we can reform Congress, then we should be able to get them to take care of reforming the corporations. We need a Congress that is once again responsive to the will and needs of the American people as our Constitution intended.
Members of Congress Need to Be Our First Priority. Why? Because they are the root of so many of our major problems. They pass laws that affect major parts of the Administrative branch, corporate America, the fifty states, and the citizens they are elected to represent. In addition, they control the taxes; authorize appropriations, pass budgets; approve appointments to judicial and administrative positions; approve treaties; declare war (supposedly), and have the responsibility for impeachment of federal officers including the president and vice-president, along with many other responsibilities. They are the source of tremendous power. When it works well, things bode well for the country. But, when the members fail at their job, they are a tremendous disappointment, and the country suffers. That is the situation we now must face.
Nobody Likes Congress but Congress. If you are a member of Congress, it appears that the only friends you might have outside of your family are your fellow party members in Congress and a small smattering of your constituents. Here is how the picture is painted, based upon many polls that have been taken.
- The New York Times/CBS poll in October, 2011, reported that Congress had an approval rating of just 9% and a disapproval rating of a whopping 84%.
- Gallup poll results released on December 9, 2011 indicate that:76% of registered voters say that most members of Congress do not deserve to be re-elected, and only 20% felt they should be re-elected. (These are record high and low numbers for this question in polls over the past 19 years.)
- The Rasmussen poll released this month reported that "a solid plurality continue to believe that most Members of Congress are guilty of corruption."
- Another Rasmussen poll in 2009 reported that 74% of Americans trust their own judgment more than Congress' when it comes to the economy.
- That same poll revealed that only13% trust the average Congress member's. judgment more than their own, and 12% are not sure who knows best.
- That Rasmussen poll also found that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again.
- A 2010 Rasmussen poll revealed that 41% said that people selected randomly from a phone book would be better than Congress.
Holy Failure, Batman! These perceptions constitute a very strong indictment of Congress. It is dysfunctional to the point of being an international embarrassment. Yet, our federal legislators don't really seem to care about how they are perceived by the electorate or the world.. They continue to go about their business of blocking major legislation, threatening to bring down the country's economy and shutting down the government, while they play chicken games with the other party and pass such critical legislation as declaring pizza to be a vegetable.
Who Are These People? These are the chosen few from our entire population who have been elected to represent the interests of the American people, and they promise great things for the country when they are campaigning. However …
- Once in office, their first loyalty is to themselves and ensuring that they get reelected.
- Next is their allegiance is to their political parties in trying to ensure that enough of their members get elected to facilitate pushing their political agendas through their legislation.
- Third are their financial backers – the corporations and the super-rich who contribute heavily to their campaigns, and who run ads supporting their anointed candidate while excoriating his or her opponent.
- Fourth come the people who voted for them.
- And dead last come the rest of the people in the country whose best interests they are also supposed to represent.
Don't They Listen to the People? No. Most members of Congress ignore most letters, e-mails, tweets, Facebook postings and phone calls. At best, they will have a staff member pore through them and pull out any that might be of particular interest or value to the representative They only care about people who happen to support their positions or carry promises of substantial campaign support. Politicians also don't pay attention to polls, which are valid expressions of the public will. They are likely to tell you that “polls don't vote; people do.” So, they ignore the polls, which are valid expressions of the public will, just as they do the people themselves. In so doing, they are ignoring the democratic principles upon which this country was founded.
Can't Congress Fix This Situation? Congress could fix it, but it lacks any desire or incentive to do so. After all, they are the ones responsible for creating it in the first place by taking money from special interests and paying them back in the form of legislation that is favorable to them. Expecting them to fix it of their own volition would be like asking drug addicts to cure themselves.They will have to be threatened with the only thing that can grab their attention and hold it -- the threat of losing their political positions.
But We Still Have Power. The average citizen has very little influence over introducing or passing any particular legislation. Unfortunately, that kind of power comes mostly with money. But we want to change that, and we can, because our power comes from the people and their right to vote, and those trump all the corrupt money in politics today. They may have hundreds of companies and rich people sending them money, but the people have millions of voters that count for far more power at the place that matters most – the ballot box. . This is the only place where we have an equal footing with the power brokers. This is where we can send a real and powerful message that can scare some sense into our legislators. Here's the strategy.
Get to the Source. The only way to eliminate the problems with our government is to eliminate the sources of the problem -- the representatives, the money, the financial plutocracy, and the political duopoly. And it can all be done at the ballot box. If we can change the representatives, we will be well on our way to restoring democracy.
Consider the Meaning and Value of Your Vote. Remember, whenever you place an X next to a candidate's name,you are saying that you are FOR that candidate. You are supporting his or her candidacy. If you are voting for an incumbent, you are supporting a continuation of the same corrupt politics in Washington that is the source of our problem..
Even in you don't vote for an incumbent, but vote instead for another member of the same party, you are still voting for a continuation of business as usual, because that party member will soon become just another cog in the party machinery who will do the bidding of his (or her) party and financial backers. And we just perpetuate the problem.
Here Is My Proposal. Very simply, cast your votes as protest votes. Here's how to really get the attention of Washington and its party politicians.
In the primary elections, don't vote to re-elect any incumbents, unless those candidates are truly committed to and have pledged to eliminate (not just regulate) money in politics and to be responsive to the American people above all other interests -- corporate, political, or personal..This may be difficult for some voters to do because more than 90% of the voting populations vote for incumbents without regard to their legislative record. We need to overcome this pro-incumbent bias if we truly want to fix Washington and restore democracy.
What about our own representatives? This is another hurdle we will have to leap. Although 76% of the people feel that most members of Congress don't deserve to be re-elected, still 53% feel that their own representatives do deserve to be re-elected. This is another bias we need to overcome for the good of our country. More than half of the voters in this country refuse to believe that their own representatives deserve to be re-elected. Yet virtually every one of them is part of the problem just as much as the others. If we vote for our own representatives, we are also part of the problem, because we are allowing the dysfunction in Washington to continue. If we were to “gore everybody's ox but their own,” we would effect no change whatsoever, and just perpetuate the fiasco we now have. It is crucially important to make a strong statement through our vote to the politicians and the country as a whole.
In the general election, vote for “the lesser of two evils.” I have always held that, if you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil. However, the general election is the decisive one, and it may not always be best to vote against incumbents or members of the two major parties. I regret that, in some cases, we might have to bite our tongues and grit our teeth and vote for the “lesser evil.”
Voting for someone who is, say, 40% “bad” for our country is still better than voting for somebody who is 60% “bad.” We might not want to vote for a third party or independent candidate here, unless he or she has a legitimate chance of winning the election, but the two major parties have seen to it that third party candidates are so marginalized that they have virtually no chance of being elected to any major offices. Rather than casting a “spoiler” vote in this case, and possibly allow the worse of the two major party candidates to succeed, I would have to side with the “lesser of the two evils.” Here is a chart outlining the various options and my recommendations on how to vote in each case.
| Primary Election | Candidate Type | Political Party | Voting Recommendations* | ||
| #1 | Incumbent | Republican | Vote for either the Independent candidate or the Third Party candidate, or write in a candidate of your choice, but do not vote for either the Republican or the Democratic candidate. | ||
| Challenger | Democrat | ||||
| Challenger | Independent or 3rd Party | ||||
| #2 | Incumbent | Democrat | Vote for either the Independent or Third Party candidate, or write in a candidate of your choice, but do not vote for either the Republican or Democratic candidate. | ||
| Challenger | Republican | ||||
| Challenger | Independent or 3rd Party | ||||
| #3 | Incumbent | Republican | Either write in a candidate of your choice or don't vote for this position at all. | ||
| Challenger | Democrat | ||||
| #4 | Incumbent | Democrat | Either write in a candidate of your choice or don't vote for this position at all. | ||
| Challenger | Republican | ||||
| General Election | Candidate Type | Political Party | Voting Recommendations* | ||
| #1 | Incumbent | Republican | Vote for a challenger (preferably an Independent or Third Party candidate and not the incumbent). However, if this presents a conflict for you, vote your conscience. | ||
| Challenger | Democrat | ||||
| Challenger | Independent or 3rd Party | ||||
| #2 | Incumbent | Democrat | Vote for a challenger (preferably an Independent or Third Party candidate) and not the incumbent. However, if this presents a conflict for you, vote your conscience. | ||
| Challenger | Republican | ||||
| Challenger | Independent or 3rd Party | ||||
| #3 | Incumbent | Republican | If only major party candidates are offered don't vote for either candidate. However, if this presents a conflict for you, vote your conscience. | ||
| Challenger | Democrat | ||||
| #4 | Incumbent | Democrat | If only major party candidates are offered don't vote for either candidate. However, if this presents a conflict for you, vote your conscience. | ||
| Challenger | Republican | ||||
| *These recommendations are based upon the belief that Congress (a political duopoly) is bought off by big-money and special interest groups (the plutocracy), that their legislation tends to favor these interests, that they no longer serve the American people as the Constitution provides, and that 76% of Americans believe that they need to be replaced. This is essential for the good of our country and the survival of democracy. | |||||
Be Patient. Our problems weren't all created in one year. They grew over the past 30 years, and they cannot be solved in one year. We can't cure all of our ills in one election but it is a start, and when those still in office see all the protest votes going to independents and third-party candidates in the primaries, it should certainly serve notice to them that they had better shape up and change things or we may be coming for them in the next election.
Will Your Vote be Wasted? Absolutely not! By voting in this manner, you are voting for a new and better America and to return democracy to the American people! To what more patriotic use could your vote be put? The only wasted votes are for those cast for candidates who will continue the ways of the past 30 years and lead our country down the path to ruination.
A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO NON-VOTERS . There are many reasons why people don't vote, and I won't even attempt to enumerate them. However, I want to stress the importance of voting in the upcoming elections – especially the primaries. Regular voters may be justifiably reluctant to vote against incumbents or for independents or third-party candidates. They don't want to feel that they are being “spoilers” or that they are wasting their votes. That's where non-voters can make their voices heard in a manner that can really deliver a message to our country's “leaders.” A full 22% (48 million) of eligible Americans are not registered. Another 23% (50.2 million) are registered, but vote rarely. And still another 20% (43.7 million) are registered but vote intermittently. That leaves the bulk of the decision-making up to only 35% (76.4 million) of the population. In the 2010 general elections, only 41.6% (90.8 million) of the eligible voters actually cast ballots. This means that the will of 58.4% (127.5 million) of the eligible population (218.3 million) was not represented in the outcome of the elections.
NON-VOTERS: Have Your Voice Heard Like It Has Never Been Heard Before. If you are a non-voter, or even a rare or intermittent voter, this is the time for you to vote, make your vote count, and have your voice heard. We need to send a strong message to elected officials that we are fed up with doing business as usual, with a Congress that puts the best interest of its party and financial backers above those of the people. The more protest votes we can get, the stronger will be our message. The stronger our message is, the more likely they are to respond to our discontent, because we can and will threaten their political careers unless they make some major changes.
A Final Note. Most of the same problems we have at the national level are also rampant throughout most of our states as well. If that is the case in your state, I strongly encourage you to use these same tactics in your state elections for governor or state legislature. They are the breeding ground for future national politicians, and we might as well get them on our side now, before they ever come into power on a national level :
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