A Few Thoughts on Representative Government

I am no person of influence.  I have no audience whose attention I command.  There are no friends who wait upon my words for counsel or inspiration.  Most people see me  and pass by without any regard as to who I am or what I believe.  There is not even a significant job of which I can boast.  I am nothing.  I am no one.  My face is no different from a thousand others that pass a person's way.

And yet, what I can claim to possess, what does manage to bestow credence upon my words is the birthright of an American, that status of a freedman which guarantees me an opinion and the right to declare it whenever circumstances warrant - as do they now.

My reading of history informs me what the Founders of America did in establishing Representative Government was quite extraordinary in the history of mankind.  Being ruled by a King or a Sovereign, as history's footprints are replete with, could never guarantee the freedoms the Revolution won; neither could a lone all-powerful individual ever govern such people of our independent nature and will.  Other societies throughout history were born into subservience.  They knew nothing but being ruled by a King, who supposedly was being ruled by God.  America, in opposition to such a template, was born by a people seeking freedom from such pomposity.  Her people will never be bound and shackled with any ease.

The only government for America was government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  Federalism established a federal government, rather than a national government, to oversee the affairs of the country.  State governments tended to the affairs of the individual states.  County governments followed suit, as did cities and towns.   Elections were held to select representatives of the people in these various governmental assemblies, intended to pull from the populace individuals who would speak for the people they represented (because they were "of the people"), conducting the affairs of the towns, the cities, the counties, and the states in a manner, of which, the people would approve.  It is a system that works.  It gives the people a voice.  It delivers on the guarantee of freedom by making people subjects of their own will, rather than the will of a tyrant foolishly believes himself in the place of God.

The one caveat, to all of this, is everything depends upon the people themselves for it to work.  The representatives of the people can become just as corrupt as any King drunk on his own power.  They can entrench themselves just as quickly into positions of aristocracy, and look down upon those who sent them to govern as nothing more than their own personal serfs and vassals.  They forget the people who sent them - temporarily - to these positions of power, and thus succumb to the wise old adage of 'power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely'.

When this occurs, George III is making a comeback as our king.

The only remedy for this corrupting disease, laying waste upon the fabric of our American freedom, is men of integrity; people who fully recognize their role as servants of the people from whom they come and soundly renounce with a fervor the enticing allures of power and command.  George Washington established the precedent, relinquishing power not once, but twice.  He peacefully turned over his sword to the Continental Congress following the end of the Revolutionary War; and after serving two terms as America's first president, he peacefully gave over his office to the new incoming president John Adams.  Two terms were enough.

What transpired from that peaceful transition of power (from my reading, it was unknown in the world at that time) to our current day and age, where people who were sent to lead find the pleasures of power more desirable than the joys of service?  How is it there are no longer any men of integrity who understand Representative Government entails representatives of the people, not representatives of the government?  Are there any who identify the pattern of service introduced by George Washington as the bulwark against dictatorial invasion from within?

Apparently not, as two years ago a longtime senator. from the state of Indiana, Richard Lugar, was defeated in a Republican primary when it learned he no longer resided within the state he was supposed to represent.  He was a resident of the state of Virginia, and had been living there for years.

Recently, the same expose of news struck one of Kansas' own, Senator Pat Roberts.  He also lives in Virginia, and has lived there for years.

If anyone cares about the freedom America was birthed in; if anyone believes in the fight against the oppressions of government our Founders battled against; if anyone sees America as something exceptional upon the world stage, a man like Pat Roberts needs to go.  Every elected official who values position over service (and forty-seven years entrenched in D.C. with no connection to the people he is supposed to represent would indicate as much), they need to go.  This country, if it is to continue, must exercise the peaceful transition of power demonstrated by the General from the start.  Only then will we be governed by leaders and not politicians; and only then will George III remain in his grave.