Land of the Free and Home Of the Brave ?

While visiting my daughter this past weekend, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law got in a quite heated discussion. It wasn't about one thing in particular - it never is. Some how or another the subject turned to politics, as it usually does as some point, and I made the statement that I feel anyone that gets into politics is a bit screwed up. I don't believe that someone that wants to get into politics is emotionally or mentally stable because it's all about feeding their ego and maintaining their power. They all have varying degrees on megalomaniacism. My mother-in-law was just about apoplectic. She couldn't believe that I felt that way and that the future of the country was in jeopardy. My contention is that it's always been like that. The Roman Senate was just a bunch of back-stabbing guys in togas and the forefathers of our nation went to great lengths to discredit each other for their own agrandisement. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, while in George Washington's administration as Secretary of State, used public money to finance a newspaper that did nothing but constantly publish article about Washington's ineptness. Washington even went to Jefferson and asked him if he knew anything about what was being written in this newspaper and Jefferson denied it. I'm not saying that politicians don't have great vision when it comes to public policy. What I am saying is that the great visions are simply a tool to maintain their power. If you don't have something the American public can sink their teeth into, they don't have much patience. I don't lose sleep at night because of this because I recognize them for what they are - self-serving.

True representative government is just around the corner. The Internet gives us the possibility of being able to vote on individual bills. We would still have representatives at the federal, state and local level but our votes would determine the way they voted. This would be a huge change from the poll-based system we have now which is, for all practical purposes, just wetting your finger and sticking in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. We have the technology for it. We just don't have one key ingredient - an educated and interested populous. Nothing scares me more than the thought of every American having one vote when it came to determining the policy of this country. Many couldn't tell you who the Secretary of Defense was much less the Secretary of the Interior. They rely on traditional media to give them the new instead of searching it out themselves. The sad part is that the very people that should be making sure people are informed don't really want them to be. The more ignorant their constituency, the easier their lives are. There's less explaining to do and they can sneak things into bills to help out the lobbyists that take them on trips, out to dinner, etc. I can envision a future not too far down the road where this country is going to collapse under the weight of all the regulations, laws and legal interpretations that have being foisted on Americans over the last 50 years or so. We aren't even enforcing the laws we have now and yet the Congress is continuing to pass more laws and the agencies created by those law are making more regulations.

What ever happened to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. I would have to say that I don't think the average American is free or brave. Yes, I'm free to write this but I still have to wear a seatbelt when I drive my car or a helmet if I had a motorcycle. If I still smoked, I couldn't partake of that selfish pleasure in half the restaurants and clubs in the US. If a restaurant allows smoking, you don't have to go in there. The restaurant would be able to tell really quickly if they could turn a profit with just people that were smokers. If there is something on television you don't like, you don't have to watch it. And the government is not responsible for making sure your children don't see it either - you are. Trying to make sure that no-one gets hurt takes away from everybody's liberty. You can't legislate intelligence any more than you can legislate morality. Stupid people are going to continue to be stupid. We should, however, make every attempt to make ignorance extinct. There's no excuse for this country with all the technology and opportunity to continue to have as many people that are as clueless about the workings of government as we do. I'll bet there aren't 2 people out of 10 that know how a bill becomes law or how the judicial system works. That might be a bit low but I do tend toward hyperbole occasionally.