By
Nick Egnatz, 8/30/06
A government which does not respond to the will of the people and which
proceeds without internal accountability amongst its various branches
is broken. After 230 years our constitutional representative
government is unable to repair itself and in need of a major overhaul.
Thomas Jefferson thought the constitution should be rewritten every
generation (20 years) so that the living would not be ruled by the
dead. Although our constitution allows for amendment, this government
or any future one elected under our present system cannot and will not
be up to the task of self regulation.
A broken system:
-
More than three years after the end of the Iraq War (May 1,
2003 Mission Accomplished as the President declares major combat
operations over), the military occupation of Iraq drags on despite the
American Public (57-41%) realizing the continuation of the occupation
is counterproductive and desiring to end the occupation. -
Our three coequal branches of government (executive, legislative
and judicial) are no longer coequal and those in power have indicated
no desire to remedy the problem. The President has taken the position
that he is a Unitary Executive and is above the law. The
Republican-controlled Congress and Senate are content to go along with
him, while the Democratic minority, in both houses, offer at best tepid
indignation with the exception of a few brave patriots. -
Corporations have been allowed to become so powerful that they
along with the ruling Republican Party, now rule the country. An
example would be the Energy Bill, drafted by Republicans and energy
executives in secrecy without allowing the Democrats even token input.
The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the American People did not
have the right to know who took part in these secret
Republican/Corporate policy meetings. -
The cost of elections: The 2004 presidential campaign cost more
than $880 million for the Bush and Kerry campaigns. This in itself is
obscene. What is also obscene is that we got very little in
information from the campaigns about their candidates for the money.
The cost of being elected to the US Senate has gone up from just over
$4 million in 2000 to $10 million plus in 2006. Very interesting that
the losing Senate campaigns spent just over $2 million in 2000 with a
projection of $3 million in 2006. Losing senatorial candidates spent
just over 50% of what the winning candidates spent in 2000 and the
projection for 2006 is that losing candidates will spend 30% of what
the winners spend. The rich get richer and the poor have kids, or in
this case the rich get their candidates elected and the poor are left
with no recourse at all. Retiring US senators have complained that
instead of public servants, they have become full time fundraisers. -
The ruling Republican party tells us the economy is good and the
Democrats say that it isn’t. The large corporations have benefited
tremendously from stagnation of wages and outsourcing of jobs to
foreign countries. They have also been able to set up dummy
corporations offshore and greatly reduce their tax liabilities. So
again the rich get richer and the rest of the American People are left
with the bill. -
The legislature is broken. They are incapable of providing
oversight of the executive branch. Both the House and the Senate have
refused to fulfill their elected duty to the American People and
investigate an Administration which took us into a war in Iraq based on
lies and half truths, an Administration which lost $8.8 billion
belonging to the Iraqi People which the US was entrusted to care for,
credible evidence that both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections
and many statewide races have been stolen, an Administration which has
condoned torture of prisoners and holds prisoners for years without
trial or charges and an Administration which has trampled on the rights
of American citizens by wiretapping without a court order. -
The legislature is hopelessly beholden to moneyed interests and
incapable of self correction. The prescription drug bill for seniors
is an example. It was brought to a vote in our US House of
Representatives at 3AM. Normal House rules call for votes to be held
open for fifteen minutes. This particular vote was held open for three
hours after it was originally voted down, while the Republican
leadership wheeled and dealed to get our congressmen to change their
votes. Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) said that he was offered campaign funds
for his son (who was running to replace him in office) if he changed
his vote. He changed his vote from nay to yea, but subsequently has
recanted the statement that he was bribed. Congressman Billy Tauzin of
Louisiana, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and
responsible for shepherding the Drug Bill through the House, retired
and went to work for the drug companies. He is now President and CEO
of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and collects a
salary of $2 million per year. The Patriot Act was also passed in the
middle of the night without giving House Members and their staffs
enough time to even read the final revision of the 342-page bill which
amended fifteen different federal statutes. -
The 2005 Pew Research Center poll found 65% of Americans favoring a
single payer national healthcare plan, even if it means higher taxes.
Yet, with the exception of a few powerless members of the House of
Representatives, our lawmakers and Administration completely ignore the
desire of the American People. The lawmakers and the Administration
are content for the US to remain the only industrialized country in the
world without a national healthcare plan for all its citizens.
The above are but a few examples of the highlights or lowlights, if you
will, of our present government. Influence of moneyed interests makes
reform impossible without changing the playing field. Any concept of
democracy starts with the premise that each citizen is entitled to one
vote regardless of the state of his personal finances. Allowing those
with money (lobbying groups, individuals or corporations) to make huge
campaign contributions is anathema to the democratic ideal. Knowing
that you can’t win a Senate race unless you have $10 million, excludes
everyone but those that the moneyed interests allow to run. If this
practice is allowed to continue, simply changing the ruling party from
Republican to Democrat will not change the underlying problem of our
elected representatives being beholden to moneyed interests instead of
the American People.
I submit three proposals that will give us a chance at a true representative government.
-
100% public financing for all elections: This doesn’t mean
we have to spend the obscene amounts being spent now. Along with this,
all public media outlets (radio, TV, newspapers, newsmagazines) would
be required to print or give airtime to each campaigns platform. True
public debates would be required, not the current style of side-by
side-questions and answers. We should let the candidates debate each
other. The idiotic commercials we now have which are very
noninformative would not be necessary. We would already have access to
each candidate’s positions. -
All elections would be instant runoff. For each office voters
would list their preference numerically: i.e. three candidates are
running for office–Bush, Kerry and Nader. Voters would select a #1
and a #2 choice. If no candidate polls over 50%, the votes of the #3
and lower candidates go up the ladder to their second or third picks
until they come to one of the top two vote getters. What would be the
benefit? Instantly our candidates and parties would have to be
responsible to the voters. We would not be stuck with voting against
our conscience because the experts say this person can’t win and we
don’t want to waste our vote. We would no longer be stuck with our
two-party system, which although it is not in the constitution cannot
be changed without instant runoffs. -
We must have fair, transparent elections that are open to all
citizens. Any voting system which doesn’t leave a paper trail for a
100% recount would not pass muster internationally and shouldn’t be
allowed in the US. State and local elections should not be run by
partisans for one side or another, such as Florida in 2000 and Ohio in
2004.
Without addressing the election financing, instant runoff and fairness
issues, I fail to see how we can ever have a government representative
of the American People and beholden to the interests of the American
People. Lincoln said it better many years ago: “that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.”
The question is how hard are the American People willing to fight to take back their government?
Nick is a member of Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace.