Politics and Power

I’ve been thinking a lot this morning about politics and the addictive power that it can entrap people with. Most Americans today are feeling a great separation from those that represent them in the political arena and themselves. It is not only seen on the federal level in Washington, but on the state and local levels as well. An article on the National Review website got me thinking about this as well as an email joke I received this morning. Both hit the nail pretty squarely on the head. The story is linked below. I will post the email in a follow up post.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTY5Yjk2NDlmYzcxYTNkODc3NzExMDk4ZDY2ZGIzNTA=

One starts to think, how can this happen? How can people that are supposedly representing the people that elected them get so seduced by this power? I believe it really comes down to a lack of principles and values. One can go into any endeavor with a good purpose at heart, but if you do not have a conviction in solid principles and values you will lose sight of your original purpose. One sees it in all levels of government and even in other areas of life. I know there is a lot of blame and anger thrown in different directions. It is thrown towards lobbyist, corporate executives, large campaign donors, special interest groups, etc. I believe that even without attempted influence by various groups, whatever they may be, that people will still be corrupted by power if they are not anchored in values and principles. If you do not have a solid anchor you will be blown to and fro. You will end up landing at whatever point benefits you the most personally. A point that allows you to keep the power you have grown to love more than anything else in life.

What is the solution to all of this? You have to seek out and find those people that have solid principles and values along with the conviction to stay true to them. If you do not find it amongst those that are running for office, it needs to be found in other people in your communities. I was just reminded of a sequence of events in a Tom Clancy book. In the story, the entire federal government was pretty much wiped out. The new president told the American people, send me your doctors, carpenters, farmers, etc. Do not send me seasoned politicians to represent you. I believe that truly captures what our founding fathers intended. To have good members of a community represent the people for a period of time and then go back to their lives. I don’t believe it was ever intended for representative positions to become a career. It creates the environment necessary to feel you have to do whatever you can to hold onto that power because you don’t have a life to go back to. If you want things fixed and for this country to move back towards its founding principles, you must elect those that have principles and values themselves. As for those that are currently in power, you need to hold their feet to the fire and remind them of the founding principles they should be following and that they work for you. In order to do that, you have to educate yourself about what is going on, where your representatives stand, and contact them continually