I STILL HAVE 2 CENTS TO GIVE

I don’t often talk about politics on my social media, but I may repost videos or posts that I think are important. Mainly, I try to do my thing, and given the current political uproar, try to limit my access to politics as much as possible. I don’t like things that piss me off or worry me. It’s not that I am uninformed; it’s just that I find my happiness to be better served when I limit the dosage.  I also don’t like the feeling I get when I know that a politician is telling blatant (to me obvious) lies that too many uninformed people will believe outright. I’ve heard it said that the definition of politics is: Poly is a prefix meaning plural or many. Ticks are blood-sucking vermin. That is probably more symbolically correct than I would like it to be, but what I know, absolutely, is that the American political system is a mess. It ceases to look like democracy more and more every day. Yes, it is a republic, but it’s a democratic republic. So, the democracy part is extremely important.

I had a friend who had been a computer programmer. She stated that she was against computerized voting. Someone asked her, “You’re a computer programmer, why would you be against computerized voting?” She said, “I’m against it because I’m a computer programmer. I know how easily the system could be manipulated.” The question these days is maybe not whether the system is being manipulated, but how much it is being manipulated and by whom. Of course, Donald Trump insists that the 2020 election was rigged against him. He also did everything he could to overthrow the decision. He never expected to lose. Yet, he sowed the seeds of descent long before the election, claiming ahead of time that the only way he could lose would be if the election were rigged. Interestingly, he didn’t contest the decision when he won elections, nor did anyone else in either party.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that the American system of government has become increasingly corrupt, not that it may not have been corrupt in the past. History certainly shows us when decisions were made that were obviously corrupt. Still, it seems that politicians are profiting more and more from their ties to government, and doing less for the citizens of this country.  Martha Stewart went to prison for insider trading, but it seems to have become common without prosecution for many in government leadership. Historically, despite our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, politicians have sought to manipulate votes and decisions in their favor instead of allowing for true democracy. Gerrymandering and the “Electoral College” are prime examples. Still, there have been many others, such as Texas continuing the practice of slavery for two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. If there is a profit in it, someone will attempt to manipulate it to their favor.

Having worked for 42 years as a social worker under the strongest code of ethics of any other profession, I find many things abhorrent about local, state, and national government practices. It is often, “Do as I say, not as I do.” It seems like the most unethical people are the ones running the government. If I could make just one change, it would be that the social work code of ethics would be adopted and utilized in all government and law enforcement agencies. However, that is likely to be a long time coming. For example, once unethical people get in charge, they use unethical means to maintain their authority, and rooting out corruption then becomes far easier said than done. We are there. Most of us easily witness unethical practices and how politicians, over the years, have set themselves up to manipulate the system more and more. We elect them to serve us, but most of them instead serve themselves. The question is, how can we, as a people, make the changes that need to be made? It’s almost like trying to revitalize an apple after it has already rotted. The question is, how do we get the rotten apples out before they rot others around them?

I once had a party conversation with a woman whose family was heavily involved in politics. She noted that her grandfather had been a bootlegger in a dry county, and when politicians came to him for liquor, he had one over on them and used his connections to influence their decisions. Over time, the family gained more and more power by engaging in illegal activity. She said, “You know how it works? You say to that senator who you want to vote your way, ‘You know that very drunk young lady you were with the other night and had sex with? Isn’t it great that she got back home safely, and you got back home, and no one knew what happened? It would be a shame if your wife were to find out, and even bigger shame if your constituents were to find out. So, maybe you should make the decision we want you to make.’” In other words, the government operates (at least in part) on blackmail. Nonetheless, modern politicians don’t seem to care whether you know they cheated on their pregnant wife with a porn star or that they grabbed women by the Pu**y. Bill Clinton’s incident with Monica Lewinsky and the cigar seems to pale in comparison. Still, maybe that was just the beginning of numbing the American public to our future in politics. In both cases, however, these are stories of men who couldn’t keep their commitment to their wives. So, could they then be trusted to keep their commitment to our country? Nonetheless, you can’t blackmail someone who has no secrets. Therefore, transparency might be something refreshing to have in politics and government.

There are so many changes I would like to make in our political system, but the only power I have to do it is to give my 2 cents and vote with knowledge to the best of my ability. The first change I would make would be to enact laws making it illegal for politicians to lie in political ads and requiring fact-checking as part of every speech and every debate. Most people today don’t vote based on what they know about the candidate or the issues that candidate supports; they vote based on popularity that is manipulated by scare tactics and brainwashing through deceptive political ads. They vote based on fears of essentially irrelevant things that have nothing to do with the candidate’s true platform and intentions. Those fears are fanned to a flame by politicians who are allowed to lie in ads and speeches.  It seems that our political system now looks more like a junior high school argument with making up names and slurs than an adult conversation about real issues.

The second change I would make is to make super PACs illegal. Each candidate would be given a budget for their campaign, with each candidate having an equal budget paid for by the government. They would not be allowed to accept any political donations. It is way past time that billionaires were stopped from buying campaigns and funding campaign events. One of the most appalling things I’ve recently seen was Elon Musk’s America PAC giving away a million dollars to registered voters in swing states to sign a petition. I would also want to limit campaigns to six months before an election instead of dragging it out for years. Corporations would not be allowed to lobby or make political donations. Gerrymandering and the “Electoral College” would be eliminated. If you think about the “Electoral College,” if the electorate goes for the candidate in your state that you didn’t vote for, then your vote essentially doesn’t count, no matter your political affiliation. In my opinion, voting districts should be based only on cities and counties. If you live in a city that has a population larger than your county, that would be your voting district. Otherwise, the county of your state would be your voting district, and you would be allowed to vote anywhere in that county with early voting and same-day voting. When I moved from Missouri to Texas, I was relieved to find that Texas allows early voting and lets you vote at any open voting location. When I lived in Missouri, even though there was a voting location less than a city block from my house, I was required to go downtown because that was somehow my district. That never made sense to me.

Another change I would make is that the focus of government action would be enacting laws for the benefit of the people, not the benefit of corporations or financially based special interests. Only the constituents of any government official would be allowed to lobby that official. Congress and the Senate would have term limits just like the president. No government elected official would be allowed to profit from their position other than their salary, vacation, and health benefits like the employees of any other organization. The people would elect the Supreme Court, and judges would have term limits like all other elected positions. Qualifications to run for the Supreme Court would be that a candidate would have to have served a minimum of ten years as a federal judge. Any American citizen, whether naturalized or not, would be allowed to vote, and voting would be compulsory like it is in Australia. If you are eligible to vote, you would be required to vote. No sitting it out and then complaining about the results of the election. Also, every eligible voter would be required to prove a minimum basic knowledge about each candidate and what they stand for in their political platform.  

Of course, special interests are always going to attempt to manipulate the vote of government officials, but that could be minimized with laws that protect the people instead of protecting corporations and billionaires. Everyone, including billionaires and corporations, would be required to pay the same percentage of taxes as middle-class working Americans, with tax loopholes for the wealthy eliminated, and tax breaks given to the working poor.  

Perhaps all this is pie in the sky. Perhaps this doesn’t account for our addiction to greed as a nation where the wealthy are practically worshipped, and the poor are despised or blamed. I have no problem with people who obtain their wealth through ethical means, but when wealth becomes a conduit for unethical people to manipulate and take advantage to gain more wealth, I have a problem with that. Wealth inequality in America today is comparable to France before the French Revolution, and we all know that didn’t turn out very well. Our wealth inequality is based, in large part, on the manipulation of the American political and governmental system. When the minimum wage has not been raised in 17 years, but there has been a cumulative price increase of 55.66% during that time, something has gone terribly wrong.

The question is: how do we fix it? I know there are people out there who have much better ideas than I do about how to root corruption out of our government. Yet, even they are limited because corruption, like a disease, tends to infect those around it. When greed is more important than ethics, there are bound to be consequences. What too few realize is that greed is one of the most powerful drugs there is, and addiction to it is common. Like any other addiction, it tends to harm those around it before it harms the addict. Ever since the onset of media in any form, from radio to AI, Americans have been conditioned into a consumer society. We have been conditioned to greed and want. There was a time when advertisements merely showed the product and what it would do. However, with the onset of the 20^th century, advertising began seeking to create a customer for the product by convincing people to identify with it, to want it, even if they don’t need it. Advertising played on human insecurities. Out of that has come a society in which too many of us don’t think any further than the ends of our noses. We elect our officials based on the same advertising techniques that are used to manipulate us into consuming more and more. Too often, we don’t see past the advertising. Too often, we don’t stop to think it through, and too many of us vote impulsively instead of voting based on what we actually know. Candidates lie, and then when they get in office, they work for themselves instead of fulfilling their promises. We could have a better America, but change begins with the people. It begins by voters taking responsibility, educating themselves, and not simply buying into a campaign designed to induce emotion instead of presenting the facts.