As many of you probably know, President Obama was schmoozing with wealthy and well-connected individuals at a fund-raising party last night in Chicago. Our leader decided that event was a perfect time to rip into his GOP enemies, accusing them (especially Paul Ryan) of horrible things like creating unfunded liabilities (Medicare Part D, the Iraq War, etc.) and not-so-horrible things, like believing he's stupid.
The President is probably right about the GOP believing he (and the rest of his party) is an idiot. And he is certainly right about the GOP (despite claiming to be the party of smaller government) creating several unfunded initiatives while Bush was in office.
Partisan douchebaggery makes for a fine story, right? Nope. The interesting part of this story has to do with readers' comments (I'm taking these from Yahoo!'s article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110415/ts_yblog_theticket/obama-caught-on-audio-slamming-gop#mwpphu-container).
"Its amazing how a free people can be dictated to by their elected servants the politicians" one reader wrote.
Another reader asked, "When is Washington going to start doing what is best for the PEOPLE???????????????????"
Comments like these are prevalent (feel free to browse through them at the link I posted above).
You can also see thousands of complaints like these on pretty much any politics-based article on Yahoo! (check out this article on the federal budget battle): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_spending_showdown.
"That's not interesting," you say. "It's no secret that Americans are pissed at our government". Duh. That's not what I'm talking about.
The interesting part of this story is that people complain about their government's actions and their legislators ignore those complaints. Stunningly, our fellow Americans go right back to complaining about the government
and government officials just go right on about their business, ignoring their constituents' criticisms in the process.
This pattern is interesting to me. The relationship we have with our representatives is almost like an unhealthy domestic relationship: one partner complains (the citizens), and the other (government officials) just ignores his or her companion . That's a recipe for a domestic (and national) implosion.
When exactly did we accept this interpretation of our partnership ? When did we as a people decide we are going to be treated like annoyances rather than partners? I'm pretty sure we never actively accepted this arrangement, but that's just the way the system evolved.
Now that we know what is happening between us and our politicians, where are our torches and pitchforks? Why aren't we in the streets protesting day after day after day? Why aren't we embarrassing our leaders in front of the world with long and furious rants?
This crap should disgust all Americans (especially young Americans because we didn't make the country this way: we were born into this trash). Our relationship with our representatives and officials should be more like the relationship between a just, rational, decent employer (the citizens) and a diligent, honest, well-paid employee (our officials): both groups can prosper if they work hard for each other.
Some times, the employee needs to lead the way for his or her employer. Other times, the employer needs to metaphorically kick his or her employees' butts. I believe this is one of those times when the boss (the citizens) needs to kick his employees' (officials') behinds until they can't sit down anymore.
We should be out in the streets protesting and getting in our representatives' faces. We should be harassing our legislators until they can't take it anymore. In this busy day and age, this is what is necessary to keep our powerful and arrogant officials in line: vigilant surveillance and aggressive, impassioned, persistent pestering.
Instead, I guess, for most people democracy is just too much of a bother. Shame on you, America. You have given away what is most precious to humanity: freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment