Friday, July 24, 2009
Who Represents Me?
We are frequently advised by issue advertisers to write our congressman or senator about such and such a point. The newsletters we receive, both welcomed and unwelcomed, urge us to write our representative or senator. We have become accustomed to this sort of thing nationally.
As a matter of practicality, it normally makes little sense for a citizen in Enid, Oklahoma, to write his senator or congressman. Why? It is because all of ours already have their minds made up on nearly every issue, and nobody but their party leadership will change their position. If you write a letter, you get a response utilizing their version of their party line.
Regardless of its uselessness, this writer does on occasion write a letter to his congresspersons.
Several years ago when President Bush and the republicans were pushing to privatize Social Security and invest our money in the stock market, I wrote a letter citing the distortion of statistics and scare tactics being employed and detailing reasons why privatization was a bad idea. In return, I received two-page form letters ignoring my points and giving me again the faulty statistics and faulty reasoning to which I had objected.
That Social Security issue is exemplary of the various issues about which we are told to write our congressperson. It is a useless activity because our senators and representatives do not listen to any opinions contrary to their party line.
Further, our congresspersons do not effectively represent consumers and average citizens. They represent pressure groups with axes to grind and money to lubricate the process. They represent the donor class of citizens. They represent voter blocs of single issue, special interest people with a desire to bend government for their own gain.
The average Oklahoma citizen with no pressure group or lobbying affiliation, and with only a few dollars to drop in the campaign collection boxes, has little representation in Congress. Our pleas will turn no heads nor reach any receptive ears.
But please allow the drawing of certain exceptions to the rule just laid out.
If I am a hard-shell conservative with right wing tendencies, my congresspersons are representing me well. If I am a rich businessman, desirous of maintaining tax loopholes, dispensations, or other ways of avoiding taxes, then our congresspersons represent me well. If I am a member of their party, and remain so in spite of obvious disregard of my personal interests, then they represent my views. If I have never stopped to think and analyze political agendas and actions, and was born into or sold the party line in the past, then they represent me.
But if I am a fiscally conservative but socially progressive citizen, nobody represents me. If I am a citizen with a social conscience who believes in caring for others in need through government, then nobody represents me. If I am one who doesn’t scare easily by use of terms like “socialist” or “liberal,” but who is concerned about the issues themselves, then I have no representation. If I am a “populist,” who puts common people first, then I am not represented.
It is doubtful that anyone has ever made a study of the above characteristics and the proportions of those represented and those not, but one might well suspect that something over half of the people living in Oklahoma have no real representation in congress – despite the vote tallies.
Finding this a probability, it gives cause for concern about democracy in our state and nation.
Money and special interests have corrupted our political system. Considering what a candidate must do, and how much of himself he must sell, in order to raise campaign funds, it is remarkable that we have an electoral system that works as well as it does.
But we could do better, and we must do better.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
As a matter of practicality, it normally makes little sense for a citizen in Enid, Oklahoma, to write his senator or congressman. Why? It is because all of ours already have their minds made up on nearly every issue, and nobody but their party leadership will change their position. If you write a letter, you get a response utilizing their version of their party line.
Regardless of its uselessness, this writer does on occasion write a letter to his congresspersons.
Several years ago when President Bush and the republicans were pushing to privatize Social Security and invest our money in the stock market, I wrote a letter citing the distortion of statistics and scare tactics being employed and detailing reasons why privatization was a bad idea. In return, I received two-page form letters ignoring my points and giving me again the faulty statistics and faulty reasoning to which I had objected.
That Social Security issue is exemplary of the various issues about which we are told to write our congressperson. It is a useless activity because our senators and representatives do not listen to any opinions contrary to their party line.
Further, our congresspersons do not effectively represent consumers and average citizens. They represent pressure groups with axes to grind and money to lubricate the process. They represent the donor class of citizens. They represent voter blocs of single issue, special interest people with a desire to bend government for their own gain.
The average Oklahoma citizen with no pressure group or lobbying affiliation, and with only a few dollars to drop in the campaign collection boxes, has little representation in Congress. Our pleas will turn no heads nor reach any receptive ears.
But please allow the drawing of certain exceptions to the rule just laid out.
If I am a hard-shell conservative with right wing tendencies, my congresspersons are representing me well. If I am a rich businessman, desirous of maintaining tax loopholes, dispensations, or other ways of avoiding taxes, then our congresspersons represent me well. If I am a member of their party, and remain so in spite of obvious disregard of my personal interests, then they represent my views. If I have never stopped to think and analyze political agendas and actions, and was born into or sold the party line in the past, then they represent me.
But if I am a fiscally conservative but socially progressive citizen, nobody represents me. If I am a citizen with a social conscience who believes in caring for others in need through government, then nobody represents me. If I am one who doesn’t scare easily by use of terms like “socialist” or “liberal,” but who is concerned about the issues themselves, then I have no representation. If I am a “populist,” who puts common people first, then I am not represented.
It is doubtful that anyone has ever made a study of the above characteristics and the proportions of those represented and those not, but one might well suspect that something over half of the people living in Oklahoma have no real representation in congress – despite the vote tallies.
Finding this a probability, it gives cause for concern about democracy in our state and nation.
Money and special interests have corrupted our political system. Considering what a candidate must do, and how much of himself he must sell, in order to raise campaign funds, it is remarkable that we have an electoral system that works as well as it does.
But we could do better, and we must do better.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
