politics: (n) see "power"
But then again, some things never change.
Take politics, for example.
Politics is, was and always will be about power. To govern is “to exercise authority over, to rule or control” (thank you Webster). Government is a system of ruling, the power to rule or act. That’s why it’s called the ruling party, not the advising party. I mean, how much success do you think they’d have by saying we suggest you pay your taxes or we would really appreciate if 100,000 combat ready soldiers show up to be transported halfway around the world? Nope. You’ve got to have power.
Obviously this is not a bad thing! I mean, we want our leaders to have power. And for crying out loud, everyone in the United States of American needs to be grateful that we, the people actually have a part in choosing who the leaders will be and thus have the power of our amazing nation. I personally prefer our system of government, however messed up it might be, over any other system of messed-up government in the world.
If each of us had to spend significant time in a country not a constitutional republic (because, remember, we’re not a democracy; see below***) we sure would appreciate with greater intensity the liberty we have in America to cast a ballot that actually counts.
Anyway, I’d like to take credit for all of the leading presidential nominees using the word “change” so much in their speeches, but the truth is they’ve been saying it for about half a year now and I’ve only blogged on it about 4 times. Even if there is a big shift in the way politics is done in Washington with a newly elected leader (and if you believe that, please be under 21 so I can credit it to youthful inexperience. If over 21, see me about a field I have for sale)…even if there is some change, what won’t change is politicking…the way people get elected.
We received not one, not two, but five prerecorded phone calls from candidates and even a candidate’s spouse. (Isn’t it fun that I have to write “spouse” instead of wife? Because it’s possible, for the first time ever in our young history that the spouse could be a man.) Five calls – and our name is on the “do-not-call” list! I was so ticked by the fourth call – which told me nothing positive about the candidate, only horrific and panicking things about the candidate’s main opponent – that I actually listened to the whole thing and wrote down the number given at the end of the message. Which shows how naïve I still am about politics, because I really thought there would be someone on the other end of the line. It was – ta da! – an answering machine. So I told them exactly what I thought about their phone calls, that it made me even more convinced to vote for the opponent, and do not call me anymore!!!
I got the fifth call the next morning.
Somehow, they didn’t get the message.
***Jane Doe Warns***
Don’t read any further if unless you enjoy brainy type of stuff – very mild, since that’s about what my brain can handle - or unless you enjoy provoking people to arguments with shocking statements like “America is not a democracy”.
I copied the paragraphs below from this guy:
“DAVID N. MAYER is Professor of Law and History at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he teaches courses in American constitutional history, English and American legal history, and intellectual property (copyright and unfair trade practices law), as well as a seminar in Libertarianism and the Law.”
He has a lot of law-related topics on his site that I found thought-provoking. But if you delve deeper and find he’s some kind of corporate sleaze or cloaked Socialist or something, don’t come whining to me about it. I’m not promoting him and I’m certainly not claiming to have run a CIA background check on him, I just found these paragraphs interesting, okay?
And his web site is:
http://users.law.capital.edu/dmayer/index.asp
And what Mr. Mayer says is:
"The United States of America is not a democracy. Let me emphasize that – THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A DEMOCRACY! America’s Founders understood well the evils of democracy and deliberately created a system of government that was not democratic but rather republican. The form of government in the United States (both the national government and the government of each of the 50 states) is not a democracy but a republic. Indeed, it is most accurately described as a “limited-government constitutional republic.”
The difference is not merely semantic. The word “republic” comes from the Latin phrase res publica, which means, literally, “the public thing(s).” It generally refers to a representative form of government, one in which the people’s representatives (chosen either directly or indirectly by them) govern but not the people themselves. (Such was the form of government, in theory at least, of the ancient Roman republic.) “Democracy,” on the other hand, is derived from the Greek words demos and kratein, which when combined mean, loosely, “the people rule.” Democracy thus is synonymous with direct rule by the people, or more accurately, by a majority of the people. "
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"Another “Progressive” era political reform that has undermined republican government in the United States was the popular referendum. Beginning in the early 20th century, many state constitutions were changed, to give the people (that is, the majority of those voting at a given election) the power, directly, to recall their elected representatives or to bypass them altogether by initiating or approving legislation. Today, many important issues that ought to be determined, if at all, by legislative bodies are being determined instead by popular election. Both major parties and both sides of the traditional political spectrum – both conservatives and left-liberals alike – are guilty of using the popular referendum to bypass the legislature (and all the checks on popular impulses that the representative system provides) and to directly enact “special interest” legislation, favorable to their constituents’ pet causes. "