Think about your elected "representatives". How many days a year do they spend in their consituents district? How many days a year to they spend in the capitol? Sadly many of the people we elect to steward the public interest spend a preponderance of their time out of district, hobnobbing with their career-peers.
If a person spends most a lot of time in jail, he or she learns how to be a better criminal and feel ever less empathy for the victimate (should be a word if it isn't yet).
If a person spends most of his or her time in a casino, the product is a more confirmed gambler.
If a person spends most of his or her time in the confines of a cloister, greater enlightenment may occur but getting its value to outside adherents becomes less likely.
Help me here... let's build a list of things that naturally happen when politicians spend most of their time in Capitols. For starters --
- They get to know Capitol nightlife and have a real good time away from family and community while in their home-away-from-home. And of course powerful figures attract a lot of temptations... and it's so much easier for the Temptations (sorry, not musical) if they can converge on a convenient location, like a Capitol. Capitols foment Scandals.
- They hang with lobbyists with fat checkbooks. One of the many Temptations.
- They hang with other politicians who help develop best practices in having fun beyond scrutiny and getting money from fat checkbooks. Just like time in the yard at the big house.
- They don't have to spend tedious time interacting personally with constituents, one of the few duties that make a political career a drag
- They can spend most of their actual working time creating legislation which creates new opportunities for fat checkbooks to appear.
Why on Earth do we still have a system that fosters and promotes a lack of accountability to consituents and encourages the development of a robust market in bad behaviors? Capitols were invented when people had to travel on foot or horseback to meet with distant peers. If you wanted to convene a decision-making group you didn't have a lot of choices. But that was, uh, like the last century or two, who's counting?
Come on now, why can't lawmakers GoToMeeting and GoogleDoc? How long will it be before the inventors of the Internet start to use it to be more productive and accountable? JK. It boils down to addictions to a power-trippin' alternate life with all the attendant perks and pleasures. As long as we the taxpayers and voters permit it, our elected reps and their large retinues will continue to rack up big travel and second-living-arrangement expenses and avoid spending quality time with us. If we want the pols to spend more time in their constituents' communities, listening to and involving constituents, we will have to force the issue. We need to bust up the Capitol paradigm and put it out to pasture with the mail pouch on horseback. Dispersing politicians would make it a lot harder for influence and vice peddlers to develop a thriving full-service community around them.
Come on now, why can't lawmakers GoToMeeting and GoogleDoc? How long will it be before the inventors of the Internet start to use it to be more productive and accountable? JK. It boils down to addictions to a power-trippin' alternate life with all the attendant perks and pleasures. As long as we the taxpayers and voters permit it, our elected reps and their large retinues will continue to rack up big travel and second-living-arrangement expenses and avoid spending quality time with us. If we want the pols to spend more time in their constituents' communities, listening to and involving constituents, we will have to force the issue. We need to bust up the Capitol paradigm and put it out to pasture with the mail pouch on horseback. Dispersing politicians would make it a lot harder for influence and vice peddlers to develop a thriving full-service community around them.
As taxpayers and voters, we should exercise our right to demand that lawmakers spend most of their time in the home district... like 2/3 or 3/4 for starters, and increasing over time. When the reps are in town, we have a better chance of holding them accountable to US. "Voting the bums out" only replaces one group of foibled humans with another. It would be better to fundamentally change the rules of the game. A change of venue would be a good start. Maybe we can wind down the cost of carrying Capitols and their dysfunctional games, and put those resources back in taxpayers' pockets or into service of real public interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment