It seems that anytime someone suggests the Constitution may be flawed, people freak out. As Americans, I think it is time we stop treating the Constitution with religious fervor, as if it holds some mystical sway over humanity, and cannot be questioned. I believe our beloved and venerated Constitution is fundamentally flawed. Thankfully, we can Amend the problem, if we can find the courage to identify, and face, the problem.
If anyone does not believe that America is at a crossroads, then let me recommend you consider the possibility most strongly again. This is a watershed time, when the character of the American people, collectively and individually, is being tested. And out of this time, we Americans will wrought a new future for our country, for ourselves, and indeed, for all of humanity. This is not hyperbole; this is fact.
Let's picture a dream scenario: Democrats take the House and the Senate in 2006. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, etc., are all thrown out of office in disgrace. 2008 rolls around, Democrats retain control of the House and Senate, and a Democratic President is elected. Democrats now have the power to begin correcting the mistakes of the Bush era, and set to work doing so. Even if the dream scenario above comes to pass, it will not be enough. In fact, it cannot be enough.
For more than two centuries, our Constitution has provided a workable system of power management, and has maintained our society fairly well. But recent events in our country have demonstrated a deep flaw in our Constitution, which the Bush syndicate has exploited.
Consider
this, from a recent NY Times piece:
When it comes to lobbying Congress, Washington is now a $3-billion-a-year company town. The influence industry is multiplying so fast that no one really knows how many lobbyists are at work these days. Ten years after a law was passed to register and track lobbyists, the Capitol staffs charged with the task are woefully short-handed and lack proper auditing and investigative powers, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity.
It found the industry doubling in size in just the past six years. At the same time, government's revolving door has ratcheted up to warp speed: an estimated 240 former members of Congress and federal agency heads, as well as 2,000 other senior officials, are now lobbyists, earning salaries only fantasized about in their public service days to gain an entree for major corporations and interest groups.
The some $13 billion spent on lobbying since 1998 is more than twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office, yet campaign financing is vetted far more closely for possible abuses than lobbying. Thousands of required lobbying disclosure documents have not been filed, the center found, with no one making a fuss.
I ask you: How can your vote, or my vote, or all of our votes collectively, compete with this? What could compel an elected official to do his job - his sworn duty to Us - when there is a three billion dollar a year machine with total access there to fluff his pillow at night?
Folks, we've got a real problem here. Our political culture is so utterly corrupted with money, words fail to express the tragedy it represents. The Constitution offers no protections against wealth as the controlling factor of our governmental system. In fact, our entire system of checks and balances has been hijacked by wealth. America is not an honorable democracy; it is a prize, for sale to the highest bidder.
Winning an election these days is tantamount to winning the lottery. Congressmen and Senators need never worry about paying the bills again, once they attain office. Winning an election means being set for life. Winning an election has become a mere vehicle to self-aggrandizement. The few who make it through the political system that are there to serve the People are few, and become more scarce with each election. People like Jon Conyers, Maxine Waters, and Barbara Boxer are, sadly, the exception; they have earned their honorifics, not merely won them.
And for Us, for We the People, winning, is just not enough. If the dream scenario comes about, it will do nothing to lessen the impact of cold hard cash. It will not change being elected from a lottery prize to an honorable duty. Short-term, feel-good victory, even in the dream scenario, is nothing more than hollow, temporary gratification.
So what to do? Easy - make the necessary changes required to derail money as the prime power in our government. Well, okay, its not so easy. Its not the kind of thing that can be solved with a simple decree. But there is a way. I propose an Amendment to the Constitution that states, in the most basic of terms, the following:
I. Any person duly elected to serve in a representative capacity shall be considered under oath at all times during their term of service. All public statements, and all statements made within the course of their service, must be truthful.
II. Failure to be truthful at all times will be considered official perjury, and will result in immediate impeachment and removal from office.
III. Persons who commit official perjury are permanently barred from holding public office.
I have heard politicians in recent years complaining about their 'rights to privacy' and how every public statement they make should not be open to scrutiny, and how they have rights to their opinions, and so on. I disagree. When I entered the military, I gave up certain Constitutional rights. Our elected officials should be no different. If you are representing the public, than you MUST tell the truth 24/7/365 while you are in office - period.
Such an Amendment is merely a first step. There are others, such as campaign finance reform, basing pay for elected officials on median income in the district they are representing, and finally and forever eliminating the 'pomp and circumstance' which colors our government in shades of feudalism.
Winning is not enough. And this is a conversation we must start to have. Our government is rotting from the inside, and if we don't treat the rot, and soon, our whole house will fall down. And we all know it. And there are those who do not believe the truth can be enforced. But if the truth cannot be enforced, than our judicial system is a complete and utter farce.
I disagree that the truth cannot be enforced. There are so many ways politicians lie to us, and there are many, many ways to police them. Isn't that what bloggers are doing right now? Policing the politicians, catching and exposing their lies? So what if there were tangible consequences to those lies? Consequences with teeth that are Constitutionally derived, not merely politically enforced?
Would such an Amendment stop politicians from lying? Hell no. But it would provide a means to punish the Tom Delays and Newt Gingrichs out there. It would raise the standards for our politicians, a bar which has been sliding for at least the past 30 years. And it would expose the dealings behind closed doors that benefit big money and politicians, but not Us.
Campaign finance reform, election reform, and all of these other items need to happen, it is true. But none of these reforms can have any lasting effect if we don't start to drain away the very vehicles used by the corrupt, used by the political culture, used to cheat us all. If we cannot begin to make the truth the first duty of our politicians, we doom ourselves to a fate I cannot even imagine - but I know its bad.
Those who believe we can give our children and grandchildren a better future by slapping a few band-aids on the system are, in my opinion, delusional. The political culture must be scrapped, and replaced entirely. And to do this, we must make fundamental changes in the way our government is influenced by cash. We must repair our Constitution.
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