Nothing is becoming more apparent than the need for a good house cleaning in Washington, D.C.. The corruption revealed over the past decade has not only uncovered criminal behavior, but a serious pattern of immoral and unethical behaviour.
Term Limits
We can’t dismiss the reality, that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That statement was the keystone of debate, while the Constitution of the united States was formed. Built on that was the fact that governing powers by nature consolidate, then expand, ever developing greater power over the governed.
The vote is the one and only power maintained by the governed, to peacefully keep governmental power within the limits of the public will. Therefore it is fully the public that is ultimately responsible for both the size and power of the government, and the level of corruption which resides within. We can’t really blame the persons for becoming corrupt after decades of re-elections. They are only human, and by our own nature, we will adapt to the climate in which we exist.
Metaphorically, government is like the prison system. Short time inmates who “do their time with good behavior”, re-enter society and live a normal life. That is after all, how the penal system is designed to work. Then their are the lifers, who accept that they will not be leaving for a long long time, adapt to the corruption within the system to make their sentence less dreary.
I think the same behavior patterns apply to everyone, and when we send the same person back to D.C. term after term, after term, we are not being loyal to our own interests, but we are instead nurturing the natural evolution of power and corruption. Congress will never write a term limits law, as it is contrary to the entity’s self preservation.
PRIMARY VOTING
Primary votes are the most effective way to enact term limits. It cannot be accomplished during a general election, because nobody is willing to vote in the opposing party’s candidate. If we as Americans want to take back control of our federal government, then it must be done with term limits either by national referendum or effective primary voting. This means that no politician is going to do this for us, this power is ours, and nobody is going to exercise it through proxy.