Everything about our system of government is a failure and a disgrace. It is the most dysfunctional in the world, and there is only one reason: professional politicians. These two words together describe the most disgusting and incompetent profession in the world.
How did we get here? This is a repeat for most of you who read my rants regularly, but it’s a fact.
The Biggest Mistake Made by the Constitutional Convention
The Constitution was ratified by the participants in the Constitutional Convention on June 21, 1788, with New Hampshire becoming the 9th of 13 states to sign the document into law. They created an opening for corruption by failing to place restrictions on the length of time an individual can serve in any of the three branches of our government.
“It’s a Good Thing We Don’t Get All the Government We Pay For:” Will Rogers
The original members of congress included several of our Founding Fathers. They were wealthy men who served the new country without remuneration. However, that has changed in multiple ways over 233 years.
The 546 men and women who serve in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches receive huge salaries. Additionally, they receive other benefits costly to the American taxpayer. Our president’s base salary is $400,000 per year; the Vice-President $235,100. Each of the 535 members of the House and Senate receives a base salary of $174,000. Ninety-eight percent of them become millionaires after two or three terms. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court receives a base salary of $280,500 per year. The eight associate justices receive $268,300. That’s a total of $96,151,900 for each year served by just 546 men and women who, with the exception of the president, work very few hours each year. I don’t know about you, but with one political party known as the “party of no,” preventing anything of substance being passed, they might be overpaid.
Parties spend Millions of Dollars on Candidates Who Make Less Than $200,000 Per Year?
If all three branches of government were forced to accept term limits, our government would not only be worth the money spent, but also forced to accomplish something in just two or three terms. As it stands now, at the end of his current term, the old man of the Senate, Moscow Mitch McConnell, will have held a seat in the Capitol for 42 years. He has accomplished nothing with the exception of playing politics for more than six terms. He will be in his mid-eighties at the end of his seventh term.
Our government is clearly not worth what it costs. However, their total salaries for one year are far less than the cost of each federal candidate’s campaign.
[Contributions by PACs to federal candidates seeking office in the 2019-2020 election cycle totaled approximately $448.8 million as of December 31, 2020. PAC contributions to Senate and House candidates totaled $85.8 million and $361.6 million, respectively.]
The primary reason for the exorbitant costs of our elections is founded in the fact that the length of time from a candidate’s declaration until election day in the U.S. averages 596 days, and 281 days from the first caucus. The next longest are Mexico, 147, the United Kingdom, 139, Canada, 78, and Japan, 12. Japan’s campaign season is governed by federal law.
Government and its Professional Politicians
I don’t know about you, but by election day I feel animosity for every candidate, even the ones I planned to vote for. It’s absolutely ludicrous, especially when most of the television ads are blatant lies, and there is no law preventing the misleading of the voting public. If anyone votes for any candidate based on what they see and hear on television, they are likely wasting their votes.
Change is needed, and it’s needed now. The real ‘fraud’ in our elections is not committed at the polls, it is committed by professional politicians who will do anything to win elections. Their country is of no importance. Their personal ambitions are priority number one.
Do your ‘homework’ and vote, but vote wisely.
By James Turnage, Novelist
Sources:
Constitution Center: The day the Constitution was ratified
Thoughtco.com: Annual Salaries of Top US Government Officials
NRP: Why Are U.S. Elections So Much Longer Than Other Countries’?
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Thomas Hawk‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
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