I don't know how many people reading this watch the show 60 minutes on Sunday night, but this past weekends episode had a piece that made me want to vomit. One segment of the show was devoted to interviewing Jack Abramoff, the notorious lobbyist who was just recently released from jail after serving 3.5 out of a 4 year sentence. The segment on 60 minutes essentially laid bare the amount of corruption that is rampant in Washington D.C. I knew that lobbyists play a big role on Capitol Hill, but I had no idea how big of a role they actually played. Jack Abramoff, just one of many lobbyists who call D.C. home, admitted to having "influenced" over a 100 members of Congress. That's not 10 or 20, but over a 100. To me, it is mind boggling how these politicians and lobbyists can get away with the amount of corruption that they get away with. What the show essentially told people was that if you have enough money, you can influence laws and bills that get passed. Supposedly, there were supposed to be reforms that got put in place to stifle the corruption, but they don't amount to much and there are ways of getting around them according to Jack. He even gave an example of how one can skirt the law and still pull strings in a "democratic" government. According to Jack, a lobbyist is not allowed to take a politician out to lunch and buy him/her a steak and a drink, however, if you have a fundraiser, you can legally court that politician there, buy him/her that same steak and drink and on top of it, give them money. Its quite bogus how it all works and the fact that the majority of Americans don't know about it or don't care is disturbing.
What politicians are essentially doing in Washington is betraying their constituents back home. Some may say that they are just doing their jobs, bringing money and work to their state or some other state, but by skirting the system, having their votes bought by special interests, they are merely becoming pawns in a culture of corruption that seems to have no end. It seems that there aren't very many honest politicians anymore, people who will say what they mean and stick to it till the end. All the politicians talk of changing things in Washington is simply a ploy to get elected into office. They know very well that they won't be able to change things, yet they say they will be able to so they can get down there and make extra money having their votes bought. Its downright disturbing. How are we supposed to trust any politician when you hear someone like Jack say that he alone was able to influence over a 100 politicians? I don't know that I will ever be able to trust a politician again. This isn't to say that I won't vote, but it will essentially come down to choosing between the lesser of two evils. What we need to do is get rid of lobbyists and special interest groups and get back to the basics of running an honest country. Somehow I fear that we are a long way off from doing that and unless Americans start getting outraged at what is going on in D.C., we will continue on our current path ad infinitum. The only realistic way that I can think of changing the system is to quarantine D.C., move the capitol elsewhere, and start over. Unfortunately, that won't happen either.
As I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago about the upcoming presidential election and how our choices seem to be between bad and worse, he said he wanted to see a businessman as president, someone who could run our country like a business. That would be fantastic except for the fact that in order for a businessman to get into office, he must first become a politician (whether he/she wants to or not), and in the process will be inherently corrupted. Take a look at Romney. He used to be a businessman, became a politician, and is now running for president. Any self respecting business owner will stay out of politics simply because the amount of corruption that goes along with being a politician. So where do we go from here? I don't know anymore. It seems that no matter what we do to try and bring about change down in Washington, our efforts hit the brick wall of lobbyists and money, and nothing happens. No meaningful change has come about in the halls of Congress for some time and probably won't. It would mean that the politicians in office would have to change themselves first and I don't see that happening any time soon. Unless we get rid of everyone in office and start from scratch, we won't get anywhere. The one idea that I do have that might make a difference is to put limits on the amount of time you can serve in office, not the president, but the members of the Congress. Currently, members can serve as long as they get re-elected which is bogus in my mind. Put a limit on the amount of time they can serve and perhaps we can bring back some honesty to D.C.
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