Sending a Message

The concept of representative democracy sounds simple. We (the people) choose individuals to represent us in the government. They (the legislators) will have the expertise to make the tough decisions, establish the priorities, allocate the scarce resources and do as much of what the people prefer as they possibly can.

The job, as you can tell from that brief description, is filled with choices, consequences, and risk. Suddenly the simple task gets more complicated when we begin to question whether we want our representatives to do what we WANT or what we NEED. We (the people) can act like foolish, spoiled children. We can demand that we subsist on a diet of candy and ice cream when what will benefit us more will be fruits, vegetables and a modicum of protein. We can insist that government take the cookies away from our brother or sister and give us their share because we want it more.

That is when our legislators have to choose whether they will function as our directed agent, doing what we demand of them, or as our trustee. If a trustee they will do what is best for us even when we object. Then they will be faced with the possibly difficult task of explaining to us why their tough love was the better alternative. Unlike the strict parent, the trustee legislators may find themselves out of a job at the next election.

Over the past eighteen months, the strongly Democratic legislature abetted by the extremely revolutionary chief executive have been denying the desires expressed by many of the people. They have been catering to their core constituency and over-estimating the size of that group. They have been functioning as parents of spoiled children and catering to the loudest of the wailers by dispensing cookies and candy without regard to the family budget. They justify it with the rationale that they are doing the best for us and we should love them for it.

Apparently we don't. We (the people) are increasingly evidencing our displeasure and the mood is largely one of displacing incumbents in November. That petrifies the parents who are about to be emancipated from their spoiled children.

So, we have this:

Do Nothing and They Will Forget About Last Year

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that isn't a viable answer. We know there is unemployment that isn't going away with a million census workers hired. We know that there is a federal law against illegally entering this country but the government won't enforce it. We know that the deficit is fueled by profligate spending and the debt has tripled in the last year. We know that redistribution of wealth is not a solution to social unrest. We know that energy independence is not blowing in the next wind. We know that the nation needs governmental decisions, not cowering in the corner trying to avoid the consequences of a drunken sailor's spending spree.

This isn't going to work.