My Type of Politician

By nature I'm not a political being (I'm in advertising) but it occurred to me just the other day that our politicians could use a little creative thinking (like our designers provide us) when it comes to their jobs and the performance of their required duties. Hypothetically speaking, if I ran for office, I'd use a lot more common sense than I'm seeing exhibited by our current gang of elected officials. Now, before I tell you what I'd do to correct the situation let's begin with some basic assumptions:

1. That our elected officials are there to represent US as citizens. That's their job description, period.

2. That our elected officials are citizens of the United States, just like those they are chosen to represent (again, US common folk).

Now, as I told my wife the other day if I ran for elected office in Washington I'd go for one term and do two things. The first thing that I'd do is run on a platform of COMPLETE REPRESENTATION. Meaning that my political views would be, should be, and are otherwise irrelevant. What I think or believe would not matter in the least. My understanding of representative government is that I'm NOT being put in place to further my own personal or ideological agenda, and therefore, what I believe should NOT count. Instead of staffers manning phones and taking down messages that our current representatives never see and/or pay attention to, I'd set up a website that would contain the following:

a. Every bill on which I would be voting

b. The official language of that bill

c. Lay person language/interpretation of that bill (for those non-lawyers out there)

d. What that bill means to the people I represent (both upside and down)

e. A set of buttons: vote - [] yes [] no

With this straight forward (and very easy to implement) approach every voter's voice could and would be heard. We have the technology to do this now, unlike even a mere decade ago. Oh, and for those of you saying "what about those without computers?" Guess what, Internet Cafe's, Public Libraries,etc... all have computers with Internet access for the public. Access is not an issue. And as a representative I would then cast my official vote "yes" or "no" based off of the direct response from the people in my district. No middle man so to speak...just the unbridled will of the people being conveyed directly and unfiltered to their chosen representative. And yet another benefit...there's a record so I could be held accountable. Did the number of yes or no votes from the website log correspond with my voting record? Holy cow...you mean my constituents could hold me "ACCOUNTABLE?" Say it ain't so! (Oh and by the way, there would be another staffer or two to verify the addresses of the people responding so no "stuffing the ballot box" so to speak). Politicians who employed this would NEVER have to defend their decisions on voting. It would be a simple matter of votes, one way or the other...very binary!

Secondly...I would go to Washington to officially bring to the membership a motion for the 28th Amendment of the Constitution. This amendment would read something like this:

The Congressional and Executive Branches of the United States government shall pass no law, binding upon the citizenry of the United States, that shall not be equally binding to all members and staff of Congressional, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States government.

It would pass folks...I'd love to see the politician face his or her district voters and try to explain WHY they did not vote for a Constitutional Amendment that made them equal to us. It simply would not happen.

Now I've mentioned these two items to several dozen people over the past few weeks...both Democrat and Republican alike, and not one of them said "that's a bad idea Dave...as a matter of fact most of them said, "Run Dave...I'd vote for you on those platforms." Now if someone as mentally challenged as I am can come up with a solid idea for both absolute representation and equality between government and citizens why aren't others? Have you heard one politician espouse either of these ideas...if so, please let me know. I want to support him or her.

Best Always,
Dave J.