Tuesday, November 30, 2010

We are a Republic, Senator


The one thing I would change to our Constitution if I had one chance would be one simple thing; term limits for all three branches of government as opposed to the single one we have on the Executive Branch.

As a republican with a small "r" and a democrat with a small "d" you will find fewer people with greater belief in one-man-one-vote (girls and others too) than your rarely humble blogg'r.

That being said, we also have to mitigate the human pattern of going with the same person they have in office, the financial corruption of seniority with fund raising, and the simple fact that the longer someone spends inside the beltway, the less they understand the nation they represent.


Though there was a lot of success this last election getting rid of long-term incumbents - that was the exception and not the rule. For those who keep electing the pork producers, their ability to vote for who they want starts to interfere with everyone's need for good governance. Your local hero becomes my parasite.

The Senate is the worst. Many Senators have a sense of entitlement that mere mortals have trouble understanding. They like their club - and many fail to understand that they are there via the good graces of the great unwashed.

I have no beef against Sen. Lugar (DR-IN) - but he is a public servant, not some hereditary Lord. How does this attitude of a former Senator towards a sitting Senator mesh with the foundation of a Representative Republic?
Even after the midterm rout that will remove many long-serving members from Congress, the idea that Mr. Lugar would be vulnerable to a primary challenge is a chilling notion to many Republicans, a symbol of symbolism gone too far.

“If Dick Lugar,” said John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator from Missouri, “having served five terms in the U.S. Senate and being the most respected person in the Senate and the leading authority on foreign policy, is seriously challenged by anybody in the Republican Party, we have gone so far overboard that we are beyond redemption.”
Who died and made him King, Duke, Earl, or Baron? You can't even challenge him? What?

I don't think I need to say more to demonstrate the disconnect from the basics of representative government.

Let him be challenged - we are all improved by competition. If he is good and his ideas sound, then those who are empowered will continue to let him serve. If their party chooses poorly, then they will be punished. Gee wizz .... it is messy. Good. Freedom is messy and inefficient. Good.

You know, "of the people, by the people, for the people" and stuff.