I received an email from a well-meaning friend urging me to sign a petition on MoveOn.org's website that he felt would encourage more people to vote and improve our government. Call me suspicious. Anything provided by MoveOn is designed to do one thing: Elect more radical left-leaning candidates to lead us into a socialist utopia where the enlightened elite will live like kings and lead the rest of us around like trained monkeys.
This petition is to be delivered to each state legislature, the U.S. Congress and President Obama: "We want a law passed that requires every citizen of the United States of America to vote in every election or they pay a fine of $50." The problems with our government are not the result of too few voters. They are the result of too few intelligent voters.
Most people who do go to the polls are only familiar with the candidates for three offices: president, governor and mayor – the top of the ticket. They select their candidates the way an 8-year-old selects her Barbie doll. They vote for the most attractive, the most charismatic or the one who has the best-looking family. When they are confronted with all the other offices on the ballot, they often wonder if they have to cast a vote for each office in order to have their ballot counted. Just to be sure, they go down the list and vote for the "incumbent."
While the president and most governors are term-limited, most congressmen and senators stay in office until they die in office (or finally retire because they are too feeble to make the trip to the nation's capital). Some are literally propped up by their staffs and can barely read their speeches, which are written for them and typed in extra large print. It is a pathetic spectacle. Our Founding Fathers envisioned a citizen legislature that would come to Washington for only a short time each year to conduct the necessary business of the nation and then return home to real jobs.
Today, most of the bills that are passed are unnecessary and wasteful. They are about distributing political favors in one form or another. It is little wonder Congress (as a whole) has a lower approval rating than used car salesmen. Nevertheless, we keep re-electing the same people. Why?
Most people cannot give you the names of their two senators. Fewer still can name the person who represents them in the House of Representatives (their congressman or congresswoman), who is their closest link to Washington. Our Founding Fathers wisely put the nation's purse in the hands of these congressmen. By law all spending bills must originate there. In other words, not a dime can be spent unless the House of Representatives says it can be spent. Unlike senators, who represent an entire state and remain in office for six years, House members represent a small number of people in their district and must stand for re-election every two years so we can hold them accountable – but we don't!
When the election rolls around, we keep voting for the "incumbent" because we are reluctant to fire someone we don't know. After all, that would be unfair! This really is unfair to our children and grandchildren. It is a sad fact that the longer a representative stays in Washington, the more he or she spends (with few exceptions) because spending our money gives them their power. History shows that for every dollar they raise our taxes, they spend another $1.17.
Our country is hopelessly in debt. We are passing this debt along to the next generation. Our largest lender is communist China. The Bible warns us that "the borrower will be a slave to the lender." What will this mean for our children?
Most of us know the names of all the players on our favorite sports team. We follow the popular sitcoms, but we can't be bothered to learn the name of our congressman and senators or look up their spending records. The National Taxpayers Union makes this easy. You can access their report card on Congress and tell if your representatives are keepers or not. Most aren't.
If we fine people if they fail to vote, we will get more people voting – but we will not get more intelligent voters. This will make it even more difficult to get rid of the entrenched incumbents who are owned by their fat-cat supports like George Soros, who just happens to be one of the primary backers of MoveOn.org.
Media wishing to interview Jane Chastain, please contact [email protected].
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