Tuesday, November 19, 2013

A New Deal For The American Government

During a campaign speech in 1932, in response to the Great Depression and its high unemployment and associated problems, Franklin D. Roosevelt promised that he would create a “new deal for the American people.” Today, Americans are ruled by a government which has lost sight of the reason why it exists. It is time for another deal, except this deal is from the people to the government.

Recently we have heard about programs at the NSA that have been brought into the public knowledge by information from ex-contractor Edward Snowden. The government has attempted to downplay the workings and impact of these programs, but published documents have shown that the government is lying to the public about the nature and extent of what the NSA is doing. It is clear that the NSA is able to intercept and store the vast majority of electronic communication in the US, including the private communications of Americans not suspected of a crime.

This activity, and the justification for it, seems unconstitutional (Amendment IV) although the government tries to argue otherwise. Even though the government may be able to offer a rationale for why the NSA's programs do not technically fall afoul of the Constitution, it should be obvious that these programs run counter to the ideals upon which the US was founded. The government might not be violating the letter of the Constitution (although I think that they are), but they are certainly violating the spirit of it.

However, this essay is not about the NSA's programs. The fact of the matter is that the NSA's un-American programs and their enormous budget, or the TSA's abuse of travelers, or America's ongoing involvement in military exercises at great expense to both human life and our economy, are not the problems. They are only symptoms of the problem. The problem is more fundamental to how our government is currently set up and how it operates.

If I try to state it succinctly, then the problem is that the government no longer works to serve the people. Instead, it works to serve corporate and special interests and, most of all, itself. The politicians that we have elected are in power to make sure that they and people like them stay in power. For many of them, being a politician is not a service to the greater public, it is a career.

Rep. John Dingell has been in office for almost 58 years, in the same seat that his father also held. Rep. Dingell is the longest-serving member of Congress in the history of the United States, and he is currently in office. Rep. John Conyers has almost 49 years, Rep. Charlie Rangel has almost 43, and Rep. Dan Young has over 40 years in office. In the Senate, Patrick Leahy has been there for almost 39 years, Orrin Hatch almost 37 years, and Senators Thad Cochran and Max Baucus have been in Congress for over 40 and 38 years, respectively.

These are not terms of public service, these are careers.

Another example of the attitudes in Congress is the recent shutdown of the federal government. Congress decided that it would be a better course of action to shut down the government of the largest economy in the world, an economy that is twice as large as the next contender, because of political reasons.

The shutdown had not even begun before members of Congress began blaming each other, pointing across the aisle or at anyone other than themselves and their friends. They were not fighting for the good of the country as a whole, because if that was their major concern then they would not have allowed the government to shut down. They were fighting for control, for the opportunity to blame their enemies (with whom they are supposed to be cooperating) and retain their own power or pursue a personal agenda.

This type of behavior is seen among members of both major parties. The attitude that members of Congress have towards their jobs was perfectly summed-up by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, when he said “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” The goal is not to help the people, or to reach common ground, the goal is to consolidate power.

The American people deserve better than this. I think that the time has come to change how our political system works, and to shift the balance of power in this country away from the government and towards the public. If we fail, then the government will continue to consolidate its power until the public has no power at all, and we will not realize that it is happening until it has already happened.

We have enabled the government to act this way because Americans display a shocking level of apathy towards what the government is doing and how it conducts itself. Americans do not care what the government does as long as it doesn't do it to them. Unfortunately, once the government does actually act against its people then it might be too late to start caring.

People seem content to vote for one of two options for President, or Senator, or Representative, when the fact is that those two options are far more similar than they are different. The first step in taking our power back is to reform our election and campaign process, and the easiest way to do that is to put control of the process back with the people.

From 1976 to 1984 the League of Women Voters, founded in 1920, was responsible for sponsoring and moderating the televised US presidential debates. During the 1988 campaign season the League voted unanimously to pull out of the debates. The campaigns of George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis secretly agreed to a “memorandum of understanding,” which allowed the campaigns to decide which candidates get to debate and who gets to ask the questions. The League of Women Voters responded by releasing this statement:

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.
-League President Nancy M. Neuman, LWV October 03, 1988

The Commission on Presidential Debates was formed by the Democratic and Republican parties, and from 1988 until today the Democratic and Republican parties have solely decided which candidates get to appear on televised debates, and who the debate moderators are. It should come as no surprise then that the candidates that we are faced with are Democratic and Republican candidates. The major exception to that rule is the 1992 election where billionaire Ross Perot was allowed to debate, and he ended up getting nearly 20% of the popular vote. The following election, in 1996, Perot ran again but he was not allowed to debate, and only received 8% of the popular vote. Voters in this country are presented with limited representation during the crucial debates, and as a result we have limited options from which to choose.

The first step in solving the problem is to remove political control from the presidential debates. Any political party should be banned from sponsoring or organizing a presidential debate, and control of the debate format and system should be restored to a non-political entity such as the League of Women Voters. We are not all red or blue in this country, some of us are green or yellow or purple or anything else, and we deserve to have more voices broadcast across the country in prime time to make their ideas heard.

Corporate and lobbyist money needs to be removed from the political system. I believe that all elected officials, candidates, political parties, and campaigns should be barred from receiving anything of value from any lobbyist organization or corporation. Individuals (American or foreign) should be allowed to donate whatever they want, but those donations should be made public so that everyone can see who is influencing the elections and politicians. If an elected official or candidate receives anything of value from a corporation or lobbyist organization or political action committee, then they should be disqualified or removed from office and the organization that attempted to influence them should be fined proportionally to the value of the donation (e.g. 10 times the value). Lobbyists can still exist, but they need to lobby with words and rationality and not money or services or other gifts or bribes.

We need term limits for all members of Congress. Members of Congress are supposed to be private citizens that leave the private sector in order to serve the public, and once their service is finished they return to the private sector. Congress should have a term limit across both the House and Senate. A person should be eligible to serve at most 4 terms in the House and 2 in the Senate, for a total of 20 years. The notion of a career politician needs to be eliminated. Politicians are there to serve the public, not themselves. Within recent months, polls have shown the Congressional approval rating to be as low as 9%, and the disapproval as high as 83%. Americans do not like Congress, and it is time that we make changes to ensure that they are working for us and not each other. Congress must be held accountable.

Elected officials should be prohibited from participating in any stock market or speculative trading while they are in office. Exceptions could be made for certain types of physical assets, such as real estate, but not for assets like commodity futures or corporate stock. Again, they are in office to serve us, not to enrich themselves. Serving the public should be a position of sacrifice, not a position of prestige and wealth. They should be in office to serve the public, not to remain there until they can retire.

The problems with government start with the election process and the legislative branch. We cannot achieve real reform unless the legislative branch is truly working for the people. However, this is easier said than done. Is revolution actually necessary to achieve this? Are amendments to the Constitution necessary to correct these problems? I don't think I'm the one who can answer those questions, I think these are questions that we need to figure out as a nation. The problem is compounded by the fact that we have a federal government that asserts the right to kill anyone across the globe for reasons that are secret; that has the capability of spying on virtually anyone they want to target; that actively lies to the public about the nature and capability of its programs; and that can redefine the word “terrorist” to make it mean whatever they want it to mean. This is a difficult problem to address when we have a legislative branch that wants things to stay more or less as they are – with them in power.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that a lot of Americans just don't care. If people don't start demanding that their government works for them then nothing is going to change. I believe that restoring control of the presidential debates to a non-political entity, removing corporate and lobbyist money from the political system, limiting members of Congress in how long they can serve, and limiting all elected officials in how they are allowed to earn money while in office are the best steps that we can take to regain control of our government.

Like during the Great Depression, it is time for a new deal. Not a deal from the government to the people, but a deal from the people to the government. The government is accountable to us, so we need to set the rules. Roosevelt's words are as true today as they were in 1932:

Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932

Please visit and sign the petition on change.org to show your support for these ideals.