President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “There are always politicians willing, on the one hand, to promise everything to the people, and, on the other, to perform everything for the machine or the boss, with chuckling delight in the success of their efforts to hoodwink the former and serve the latter. Now, not only should such politicians be regarded as infamous, but the people who are hoodwinked by them should bear the blame.”
Sadly, we live in an America where we are seeing President Roosevelt’s statements proven true. Leaders continue to make promises to voters election cycle after election cycle, while all the while pandering to their political machines behind the scenes with real promises. Who gets left out of that process? The voters. Who pays the price over and over again? The voters. But it’s not just American voters who pay that price. It is being paid by the country itself: it’s history, heritage, and identity are all being morphed by those who use this process for personal gain. America is now officially literally “for sale.”
Promises
We will not waste your time to list all of the promises made during recent campaigns that were made over and over again by desperate political candidates who willingly succumbed to temptation to do and say anything to get elected. However, the most recent and most costly example of this practice was the Omnibus Bill passed by Congress that will fleece Americans of at least $1.4 Trillion dollars. A government spending bill that is exorbitant is nothing new. What IS new, however, is that the GOP Congressionals who ran for office in 2016 almost unanimously promised full support of President Trump’s presidential campaign promises that any spending bill would de-fund Obamacare, fully fund the southern border wall, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and reject funding for Sanctuary Cities that refuse to cooperate with Homeland Security in notification of jailed illegal immigrant criminals about to be released so that ICE agents could step in and take custody of those criminals. They passed a bill that included ALL of these BUT EXACTLY OPPOSITE of what was stated in their campaign promises.
I mention this bill only to remind all that “Promises, Promises, Promises” on Capitol Hill ring hollow and should for the near future — especially during the 2018 election campaign cycle — fall on deaf ears. Voters need to listen to their hearts instead of hearing and then simply believing what candidates promise this year.
Debt of Candidates
No, I am not referencing the massive amount of dollars that many candidates must borrow to finance their campaigns. Think about that for a moment: a member of Congress who makes less than $150,000 a year often borrows several million dollars to fund a campaign for that office. How can they repay the source from which they borrowed? Simple: through campaign contributions. Who donates a total of millions to Congressional campaigns? In Teddy Roosevelt’s words, “the boss or machine” who makes those contributions to those candidates do the funding that does NOT have to be repaid.
Rush Limbaugh said it best when asked years ago about his running for national political office. He responded this way: He could not afford to fund a Congressional or other national office campaign on his own. Therefore, he would rely on political contributions. His makeup would require his “commitment” to those contributors to be obligation to facilitate their needs/desires should at some future point they reach out to him to draw on that “commitment.” He personally found no way to be able to reconcile in his mind to successfully respond without some quid pro quo. Therefore, he will never run for office.
Sadly, Rush Limbaugh’s honesty and moral compass is NOT shared by many in D.C. The accepted method of running for office is reliance on campaign contributions. Certainly small amounts from many voters dilutes the potential for quid pro quo demands from contributors, but with the invention of PAC’s — Political Action Committees — and their ability to collect unlimited amounts in campaign contributions entices candidates to instead of doing the hard work of interfacing with thousands of small contributors to discuss their concerns and political ideals, to simply turn to the big contributors who can fund a campaign requiring very little effort by the candidate. In that scenario, American voters lose and promises are broken.
Actual debt from borrowed dollars are NOT the debt of candidates that is concerning. It is the debt of candidates to contributors — not the “little guys,” but the Unions, PAC’s, corporations, and even national political parties. When payback is expected, corruption will ALWAYS be present.
Summary
In the current political process, the fabric of independence, liberty and justice for all, and the election of Americans to actually serve their country with their service is virtually lost to the greed of self accomplishment in achieving influence in government. We see the evidence of this playing out on an international stage as political leaders are being exposed one at a time in D.C. The only surprising thing appearing in each expose is just how brazen and callous to the immoral if not illegal actions being embraced by most all of the professionals working within the Beltway — and not just elected representatives. Even those who are appointed are increasingly being exposed as perpetrators of impropriety to enhance their personal agendas — AT AMERICAN VOTERS’ EXPENSE.
The bar of honesty and integrity in our nation’s capitol has been lowered so often it is dragging the ground. Trust by Americans in the government and the political process is dragging the ground with their honesty and integrity. Washington D.C. looks everyday more like capitol cities in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia.
Americans must be diligent in demanding for and settling for nothing less than honesty and facts. Those things are there. Sadly at one time we had smooth access to “real” actions that paralleled promises. It is actually unusual for members of Congress to follow through on their political commitments. Gone is simply doing the right thing.
Our hopeful salvation is on the horizon as long hidden evil deeds are being exposed. If Americans as all of these are revealed, analyzed, and corrective actions taken demand complete transparency that is always promised by candidates, we will see this horror begin to disappear. But American voters must accept nothing less…period.
