The People vs The Politicians

Please, someone, tell me that someone, anyone has a problem with our elected officials constantly playing politics instead of governing. If you follow the main stream media, notice that the majority of the coverage about politicians and our legislative process focuses on who can make deals with whom and how a certain deal will benefit the party or the politician. And the media seems just fine with this.

Most pundits from the major outlets do not question this thinking. Even bloggers and the so-called underground media say little about this.

The problem is that we have built a sub-culture of politicians. Many of them have re-election as their main goal. Their everyday actions are centered around what they should or should not do in any given instance based on how it will affect their chances for re-election.

It is often reported that a member of Congress voted a particular way on a bill because he or she was making a deal (or making good on a previous promise) with another member. Wait. I thought our elected officials should be voting based on what is best for their constituents.

Of course, if asked, the politician will always tell you that they did consider the people when voting. Well, if that were the case, then political lobbying would not work. It obviously does work, or the corporations would not continue paying lobbyists to influence votes.

In the latest mess in Congress, the Democratic majority has promised to block the appointment of Roland Burris due to the so-called "taint" of the indicted Governor of Illinois. One analyst said the majority fears losing that Senate seat in the next election because the people will not want to vote for the 'tainted' appointee.

So they fear losing the Senate seat to a Republican. This would take one seat away from their majority (and they need every possible seat to maintain the majority.) And so losing the majority means the Republicans will have the power in Congress.

But doesn't all of that assume that they are positive that the 'good' laws come from Democrats and the 'bad' laws from Republicans? And I say this even though I prefer the Democrats usually.

Again--where are the 'people' in all of this? They are not considering the credentials of Roland Burris at all. He could possibly be the best qualified to serve the people of Illinois. But that is not even a consideration.

There are numerous other cases in which our elected officials choose party and politics over what is right.

And I think this is wrong.