WHO SHOULD REALLY RUN THIS JOINT?

 

Some people by their nature and or training tend to confront problems head on and seek solutions. In a society like ours in America the people who fit this category also tend to separate themselves into two populations. One group favors private free market solutions to problems while the other group, gravitate towards government based solutions. My own personal belief is that each issue or problem in question usually fits into one or the other of these choices best. One thing that seems self evident is that it is hard for the American public to reach a consensus on which problems should fall to the government and which to the private sector.

A large slice of the population can still remember when the U.S. Post Office had a monopoly on mail delivery. It seemed at the time as though this was one of those programs best left to be dealt with by the government. Once deregulation made it possible, private carriers like UPS and FEDEX demonstrated that they could out-compete the government hauling packages and make a profit at the same time. The government used to grant a monopoly to one quasi-private phone company before a law suit changed the world of personal communication and now we all have cell phones. My point is that it is not always a clear choice which is better. I don’t think anyone believes that the military should be privatized but then we did just open up space flight and exploration to private capitalists.

Maybe the best thing to do is just elect some citizens to come together and draft a set of rules setting down how we are going to run this country. Once they are done we can vote on it and, if adopted by the majority, we will be able to move forward without so much controversy. The rules may need to be changed from time to time so we had better include a way to amend them in an orderly manner.

The Constitution is, of course, the embodiment of the rules the Continental Congress set down and once coupled with the bill of rights became our roadmap to the future. We have from time to time amended it to meet the changing needs of the country. The Constitution as amended has been remarkably successful for over 230 years. Today there are those both inside of our government and out that believe the restrictions placed on the government by the Constitution are obsolete. They argue that rules drafted in the 18^th century should not still be controlling our lives. Let’s just suppose for arguments sake that we decided to write a new Constitution. Who then should get to draft this document, the people that believe the best answers to problems come from government programs or those that favor the private sector. I do not believe that we as a nation could reach a consensus on that question. Maybe it is better to leave the current Constitution alone and just focus on who we choose to administer it.

Elections tend to be popularity contests where media smear campaigns purchased with huge advertizing budgets usually favor incumbents. Special interest groups make large donations to reelection campaign coffers to secure favorable votes on pending measures. Who among us except the Congressmen cashing the checks and the special interest groups writing them think that this is a good system. The people of this country, from the big government and the small government camps, need to send real experienced problem solvers to Congress. Campaign finance reform is needed however, the incumbents in the legislature are the foxes guarding that hen house. We need to get together behind candidates dedicated to solving the spiraling debt and unsustainable entitlement problems. Immigration, job growth, national defense and the rest of the big issues are not going to be fixed by the same bunch of clowns that created the mess.

I submit that citizens who are not beholding to special interests, drawn from our population’s real problem solvers would clean up the D.C. mess. Doctors, military officers, police, engineers and business managers are the types of citizen legislators we need because they actually confront and solve problems. If we continue to rely on the same career politicians, lawyers, and corrupt bureaucrats to fill the legislature we are doomed as a country.