Weekly Opinion Editorial
WILL THE SWAMP WIN?
by Steve Fair
Duty is
defined as a moral or legal obligation; a responsibility; a task or action
someone is required to perform. The
mandatory duties of American citizens include (1) obeying the law(lots of them),
(2) paying taxes(federal, state, local), (3) serving on a jury when summoned,
and (4) registering with the Selective Service.
A Pew Research poll in 2018 found 91% of Americans thought voting was important. 90% thought it important to follow what was
going in government and 89% thought answering the call to jury duty
important. But the totals were much less
for those who believed these duties were ‘very important.’
Consider the turnout in local school board, municipal and
bond elections. A relatively small
percentage of those eligible to vote in the election actually participate, even
though the decisions made by those local officials impact citizen’s lives more
than the decisions made by Congress. The
founders of America expected citizens to be engaged in their government. They expected them to educate themselves on
issues, pay attention to what their government was doing, and hold elected
officials accountable. Where did we go
wrong and how do we get back on track as a country?
First, as America
grew in population and prosperity, citizens got lazy. Voter turnout in presidential elections
steadily declined in the 20th century. In the last three presidential elections,
turnout has been up, but still just 66.7 of the voting eligible population cast
a ballot in 2020. As per capita income
increased, interest in government policy became focused solely on how it
impacted an individual’s wallet. Americans
voted for the candidate whose policies helped them fiscally. President Bill Clinton ran his 1992
presidential campaign against George HW Bush on the theme- ‘it’s the economy
stupid,’ and won. Apathy and unconcern by
citizens about what elected officials resulted in no accountability, which in
turn created ‘the swamp,’ at all levels of government. Politics became an industry with well-paid
career opportunities for elected officials and staffers and bureaucrats.
Second, special
interests got aggressive. Seizing the opportunity
created by indifference of the general public, buying elected officials became
the norm in America. Large businesses,
trade associations and cash rich non-profits financed candidates who would do
their bidding once elected. The result
was a huge influx of money into politics.
The average U.S. House member spends 2 million dollars on their
campaign. In 2018, U.S. House candidates
that spent the most money won the election.
That is par for the course in all
elections. The consequence is elected
officials catering to those special interests and not their entire
constituency.
Are we past the
point of no return in America? Has ‘the
swamp’ won? Hopefully it is not a
hopeless situation and we can recover.
The fundamental problem is older Americans haven’t stayed engaged in
their government. Their laid-back, intermittent
involvement in exercising citizenship gave rise to a overreaching, intrusive
government. In turn, younger Americans
have little idea about our form of government because their elders have been
terrible examples. Most Americans have
never read the Constitution and have no idea elected officials are sworn to
protect and defend it, while most ignore it.
Citizenship is every American’s duty.
Until more Americans exercise their moral duty, the swamp wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment