Why We Vote
By John Longenecker (05/14/08)
Every generation of constituents has to live with several generations of Congress infected with Potomac Fever
If anything lasts forever, it is Policy in Congress.
When Representatives serve in office, they make Policy for America. They introduce bills, they debate, they pass laws, they investigate things, they hold hearings, they approve of things, they fund things and they move on. A law is passed and citizens have to live with it. Some laws are demanded by constituents, others are unwelcome and protested. Policy also comes from the Oval Office and elsewhere, but it is Policy that endures long after an official retires, is termed out or unseated. Policy.
Either way they came to the floor, these works then become the frame of reference for other members of Congress. Over time, these become the values system framework for their reference and overall understanding of the world as they settle in and become more insulated. This is, in my surmise, where Congress begins to lose touch with reality, reality being the reality under which constituents have to live thanks to the misperceptions of Congress in their environment.
Reality is different for Constituents and Congress. Nothing new in this, right?
But most important for both Constituents and Congress, it means another shift in values guiding them further and further away from Constituents every day. Don't think that Congress doesn't have values -- it's that they derive a new set of values from within their environment with every new law they pass and hand to the next generation of Representatives. In this, Congress not only shapes the nation, but it shapes itself as more in touch with its own insular environment than that of the people they serve. Like the insular environs of the News Media. And with a new norm in every new election, Congress' frame of reference changes faster than society's does. For every lifetime of a constituent, there is a growth spurt of two to four years ahead for every official. It's almost like dog years for them relative to Constituents, and when it comes to perspective on how to govern, their perspective operates in an environment utterly out of touch with what citizens have to live with.
For example, Congressman A comes into office in 1950 and introduces a Bill which restrains such and such. This becomes law for twenty years, and when Congressman M comes into office a generation later in 1970, she sees the landscape and sees that A's bill is the norm to her way of thinking -- along with hundreds of other rules. M's first term as a Freshman is to sit down, shut up and watch as she is groomed by senior colleagues. At least most Freshmen are . . . M never does understand how a 1950 law went bad for her state, not really. To her, this is the norm, the world according to Congress. Inside, she changes from a citizen to a Freshman Congresswoman. Add to this the Potomac Fever and the good ole boy network, and you have a real governance problem incompatible with liberty in this country.
Understand that this thinking is everyone's thinking once they are immersed in their work environment. When you work in a hospital, everything appears in medical terms, sometimes with patient values lost in the shuffle. A whole language prevails even, as Emphysemics are known as Blue Bloaters or Pink Puffers. Nice. If you work in a legal environment, everything is viewed in legal terms, people are assessed in terms of how smart they were or how slam dunk the case is, not in terms of values or genuine justice anymore. If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
This is why government is viewed as a cold, faceless entity, self-interested and with a siege mentality on the increase (National ID Card, for instance) and other views that want to lower the boom on citizens who wish to invoke their authority in self-rule oversight of officials instead of being overseen by officials. Officials simply catch this disease of Potomac Fever and believe constituents simply don't understand, want more Pork, or are technically incorrect on some oversight. Educators and Administrators show this syndrome rather clearly: after a while, educators see parents as nothing but pests. Zero-tolerance is proven to be one of the best tools in managing pests: it doesn't stop Bullies, but it sure shuts up parents. Pests.
The fact is that constituents are not correct or incorrect: it is a question without meaning. Constituents are entirely correct because it is we who are in authority and not officialdom, no matter how self-impressed or smart or well informed the official is. We don't have anything against Government any more than we have something against Servants. We - and they - must simply remember that they are Servants.
Meanwhile, at all times, nobody is safe as long as Congress is in session, according to Mark Twain and Will Rogers. And some of our own experience.
But we can control a lot from here, as in the Vote in citizen involvement in due process and follow-through. One of the most important issues in the 2008 election is to appreciate where we stand in our Sovereignty in all things. And what if we find that we have no sovereignty?
It's simple: we simply put it back. We affirm it, we supervise it (and officials) and we never presume that it is in good hands unless it is in our hands. We begin to affirm it by the Vote, no matter what its condition. Because who we elect to all offices shapes Policy for years to come, and sitting this one out is read by their values system as Consent.
Voting and supervision of officials puts the self in self-rule.
And that's very good for the country.
John Longenecker
John Longenecker is Publisher of Contrast Media Press, liberty books. See http://www.ContrastMediaPress.com/
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