Letter to Editor 1
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Please consider the following for printing in your letters to the editor column. Thank you. I love your publication.
Our government, though a Republic, is also a democracy. And one of the fundamental principles of a democracy is that the voters have the right and obligation to vote out incumbents when government is not functioning as voters expect it should.
Our U.S. Congress, according to all the polls, is not meeting a majority of voters expectations. Voting out politicians who reside over poor government performance is fundamental to maintaining to responsible and accountable government. That is how our founding fathers expected this democracy to operate. But, with a 94% average reelection rate, even when our government fails to live up to our expectations, voting out incumbents is a concept voters must re-familiarize themselves with.
I have leant my support to a voter awareness and empowerment organization called Vote Out Incumbents Democracy. Their mission and goal is to remove a sufficient number of incumbents from office over the next couple of elections, that the remaining incumbents and incoming freshman get the message. The message is simple. We are voting for results, not promises. Meet our expectations, or be next to lose your reelection bid. It will work.
I want what a majority of all Americans want from our Congress regardless of party affiliation. Security, prosperity, and freedom to pursue our lives and
aspirations without undue government intrusion. Our borders leave our nation unsecured. Our national debt and trade deficits are bankrupting our children's futures as well as the Social Security system and other safety nets for our elderly. And our politician's fears of terrorists, heightened by our unsecured borders, are causing them to unduly intrude upon our personal lives, both in the form of taxation, as well as monitoring our actions, finances, and comings and goings.
It is time voters who are fed up with Congress' inept performance to band together by joining Vote Out Incumbents Democracy (http://voidnow.org) or, similar anti-incumbent organizations, in order to grow the ranks of anti-incumbent messengers and voters. We must use our vote to hold politicians accountable for poor results. If we don't, our children's and our nation's future will suffer the consequences of Congress' mis-management of this great nation. And it will be our fault as much as theirs for not holding them accountable at the ballot box.
Without pressure from us at the ballot box, our Congress will continue to cater to the lobbyists, wealthy campaign donors, and special interests ahead of what is good and healthy for the nation, we, its people, and our children's future. They have lost their way. We must bring them back to the democracy our founding fathers intended for us to exercise.
If we don't, they won't. It is up to us. They won't make the tough decisions, so we are going to have to make the tough decisions at the ballot box. It is not easy to vote against a representative one knows and for a challenger one doesn't know as well. But that is what it has come down to.
Comments
90% of elections are won by the candidate that spends the most.
83% of all donations of $200 or more (at the federal level) come from a mere 0.1% of the U.S. population.
40% of all wealth is owned by a mere 1% of the U.S. popultion.
There are two classes in this country:
Government is FOR SALE, and incumbent politicians do NOT want campaign finance reform. No wonder bought-and-paid-for politicians carry the water for their big-money-donor puppeteers.
A lack of common-sense campaign-finance laws gives incumbents huge and unfair advantages, among many other advantages and perk$ that they have secured over time for their and their cu$hy, coveted seats of abused power.
For that matter, incumbent politicians resist many no-brainer, common-sense reforms.
Posted by: d.a.n | August 7, 2006 7:16 AM