Thursday, January 21, 2016

Does the job of an elected official begin and end with their vote... or is there more to it?

Where, for example, is the line between "representation" and a self-derived agenda actually drawn?

I take the more black and white view: that the legislator's entire duty begins and ends with first, ascertaining the will of the people and second, voting that will as their primary purpose of being elected.

It's straight forward, when you think of it.  Others, of course, are free to hold a different view... but that's my view because, as the Washington State Constitution says:  All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Thus, the people's LEGISLATORS have NO political power.  So what is it about sublimating that will to the will of the legislator?

What of  the legislator who ignores the people they represent?  What of the legislator that not only ignores the will of the people they've sworn to represent, but lies to them to get elected, using the "when rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it" defense?

What of the legislative candidate who agrees with that philosophy, like the one recruited to run against Pike?

And then, what of elected officials who abandon their friends in time of need because they lack the courage to do what's right in favor of what's politically expedient because someone has ordered them to?

And locally, what of elected officials who campaign one way entirely to get elected... and then govern entirely another once they're sitting there?

That's what we have at most levels of government these days... from the federal to the state to the county.

it's out curse.  It's our weakness.  It's our democracy.  It's what can happen when people become sheep and abrogate their responsibility to take and make political decisions based on reality as opposed to what they THINK the reality actually is.

Our country is a mess.  We're governed by a disreputable rabble who think they are above blase' tenets of life such as truth, honor and integrity.

We elected a GOP Congress who ran as opposition to Obama only to be co-opted by Obama... making their control of that body utterly meaningless.  The clueless moron elected to that body is reprehensible in her faux representation of the people of this district in Congress.

But there seems to be so much of that going around.  At the state level, our local state senator lied to us to get elected and then went out and recruited a candidate who agrees with her lies, confusing that betrayal with one called "Leadership," which usually what democrats call Rivers' variety of betrayal... that is, what they call it any time the GOP screws the people who elected them.

Political manipulation is an art to be mastered.  We saw masters at work when scum who should have sucked it up and supported the Republican candidate for county chair, then proceed to commit political treason and vote for a leftist democrat, one I warned would raise our taxes and role back every conservative initiative put in place during the course of his welcomed absence from governing us... one I am ashamed to call my brother-in-law.

They share in as much responsibility as the Three Stooges (Boldt, Olsen, Stewart) who raped us for extra, unneeded millions in taxes to go along with the $700 million Rivers scammed from us in Gas Tax.

But that is the curse of democracy... when you can lie your way into office, vote like your leftist opponents, and claim you're a Republican... all while the local GOP remains silent and does nothing.

Meanwhile, those who should be political allies stand by, silent or actually damage those who engage in in support of the party they claim... oh, so, falsely, as it turns out, to be a part of.

In answering my own question, yes... I believe there IS more to it.

Many, such as my own state senator, become so enamored of their title that they forget their words... they forget their jobs... they forget what they are there for... and focus instead on their own self-aggrandizement... and the power.

It's a disease.  It infects the minds of the weak and they cease to be what they are supposed to be:servants of the people.

Instead, they become servants of themselves and the system that perverts them.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I recently wrote to Councilor Julie Olson about her vote to repeal the 2% general fund levy reduction (Pointing out that she claimed she would be "Keeping a careful eye on fiscal responsibility."

She responded that the Assessor, Treasurer, Sheriff, Auditor, as well as the "finance team" all testified against the 2% levy reduction.

She goes on to say, her view of "fiscal responsibility is not to knowingly and willfully put the county finances in jeopardy" ...

OF COURSE, these county officials would all be against ANY reduction in county revenues. That's the whole problem, government ALWAYS wants to spend (or squander) every nickel they get their hands on. That's what government does. Starving the beast is the only way taxpayers can get any efficiency out of Government.

If we had some politicians with any common sense, they ought to be putting every county service "out for bid" to see if private contractors could do a better job at lower cost (the civil service could bid on the contracts as well.) Some cities in Arizona have operated on that basis, and deliver necessary services to their citizens at very attractive cost.

K.J. Hinton said...

This is certainly a symptom of the disease... Olson, of course, doesn't represent the Assessor, Treasurer, Sheriff, Auditor or the "Finance Team."

Her JOB is to REPRESENT THE PEOPLE.... and NOT the government bureaucrats.

This response on her part shows she's absolutely unsuitable for elective, representational government.

That reasoning is, simply stated, disgraceful.