Legislate, don't manipulate. A plea to politicians

EXPLOITING DEMOCRACY

By

Vern A. Westfall

      Politicians have always brought special agendas to congress for consideration. It is an essential part of any representative democracy, but it only works if the agendas are open for review by the voting public. Hiding priority agendas from the public during elections, cloaking them in misleading language and burying them in unrelated bills to become a law, are subversive acts that undermine a free and open government. Some closed door negotiations are necessary to coordinate political campaigns and to assemble blocks of votes, but underground campaigns to recruit and finance politicians in order to infiltrate our legislative bodies for narrow personal agendas is a subversion of democracy, not an exercise in democracy.

     After many failures to gather public support for narrow views, extremists have begin to manipulate primary campaigns by sneaking their candidates into the system with carefully coached rhetoric, money from secret donors and very sophisticated gerrymandering. Secret agenda politicians concentrate on primary elections because primaries attract very little public scrutiny have low voter turnouts and are party oriented. With agendas hidden in the only platform available in a following general election, puppet candidates are nearly assured success and take their assigned agendas to the next step.

     This undermining process of rigging the system has resulted in a loss of public trust in the workings of what should be the most effective government system in the world. Strong views have a place in democracy, extreme views do not. Open debate and reasonable compromise are the bedrock of democracy but intolerance, based upon strict ideologies, is quicksand and will swallow all our freedoms. When pledges are signed by our lawmakers that take precedence over their oath of office, they become an appointed surrogate, not an elected official, and should be required to rescind their pledge or leave office.

      “We The People” means all of us, not just the pious or the wealthy or the well educated. There is an innate wisdom in our diversity that needs to be respected by all lawmakers and put before fraternity, region, or religion. Stop preaching, stop blocking debates that might expose a weakness, stop pointing fingers and looking for ways to discredit others with different views, and stop fostering paranoia by demonizing others in order to get votes. If holding office, or your view on any specific subject, is more important than the integrity of our Country, you should not be in office. If you let competition supersede compromise in all debates, you should not be in office. If you love this Country love all of it, not just your close circle of like minded friends. Ask yourself why you are in office, how you got there, if you have the perspective and wisdom to govern well, and most important, ask what or who determines your position on matters before you. Any answer, other than your own best judgment of what is best for the Country, should give you pause. We didn’t elect you to represent Wall Street, your church, big business or labor. We elected you to guide and govern a complex and diverse association of people with divergent ideas struggling in a complex world. You may not be able to understand all of us, but please try. Please--------- put our best interests before your personal ideologies and political aspirations and legislate, don’t manipulate, govern, don’t dictate.