When I decided to resign from the United States Navy and make another stab at college (courtesy of the GI Bill), I was very fortunate to be assigned to the class of Mrs. Francis Wright.  Mrs. Wright, I began to think of her as Mrs. Right, was beginning the last year of a long career of teaching History.  The class that I was enrolled in was Oklahoma History.  After our first examination, I noticed that one of my answers had been marked incorrect.  I had studied very hard for this test; an old retread like myself tended to be a bit of an over-achiever.  I searched through my textbook and discovered my answer should have been marked correct.  Figuring that Mrs. Wright had made a simple mistake, I took my paper and the text into her office after class and pointed out the error.  Mrs. Wright snapped the book shut and looked me straight in the eye.  When the author of this book has as many credit hours in history as I do, he will probably revise his flawed book.  Listen to my lectures if you want the correct answers to my examinations!

     From that day forward, I never opened that textbook again.  I began the far better practice of taking notes.  Three things happened; 1) I got more correct answers, 2) I learned more because the act of writing helped imbed the information more deeply, and 3) I began to enjoy the class much more than before.  Mrs. Wright’s lectures were colored with a wealth of personal experience and perspectives that I still treasure today.  All of her personal notes were contained in a huge 3-inch thick loose-leaf binder that she would bring into class and place on the lectern.  She would open the binder to the desired page and never really look at it again.  She would walk and talk.  Occasionally she would pass the lectern and turn a page.  Questions from the class were taken only at the end of the class, so your questions should be part of your notes, with a space for the answer.  My first attempt at college, after graduation from high school, had been a disaster.  I finished that semester with a GPA of 1.2 and joined the Navy before the draft board found me out.  Thanks to Mrs. Wright, I graduated three years later with a double major sporting a GPA of 3.8.

     One remark that Mrs. Wright made, that was not included in the book, seems even more true today than it did even then.  Ladies and gentlemen, no congressman or state legislator should be elected to more than two terms of office!  The first term is required to discover the workings of the system.  The second term can then be very productive for the constituency.  The third and subsequent terms however, become flawed by the normal temptation of corruption that occurs when power has had the time to erode good intentions. The old saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is true!

     Right now, the average length of service in the U. S. House is 10 years, which is 5 terms.  In the U. S. Senate, the average is just over 13 years.  Better, but weighed by the huge number of first term senators brought in by the Obama administration.  The seats of real power still rest with those who have had more than adequate time to fall prey to the corruption of power.  In addition, representatives are under additional pressures that I will discuss later.

The United States Constitution consisted of four hand-written pages.  The Declaration of Independence was one hand-written page.  The Stimulus and Recovery legislation was over 800 pages and the latest health care legislation is almost 2000 pages long.  Why does it take reams of extra paper to correct the health care system than it took to start our country?  The answer lies in what I believe is a root cause of many of our problems, lawyers.  At this time 40% of the United States Congress are lawyers.  The stock in trade of the legal profession is to craft written documents that only they can read or interpret.  We the people would be better served by common sense citizens than by reams of “legalese”, designed to confuse and require more lawyers to interpret.

Enough said about lawyers!  Let’s talk about the biggest roadblock to democracy in our government today, lobbyist!  Washington contains 12,553-registered lobbyist as of this congress.  That’s over twenty-three lobbyists for each and every member of congress.  What purpose do these non-elected power brokers play?  They exist solely to serve their masters, special interest.  For members of congress, they represent a primary resource of campaign contributions.  This is of extreme importance in the House of Representatives who have to mount a major campaign every two years and have to spend much of their time raising campaign funds.  As far as I’m concerned, lobbyists are another species of pests, like cockroaches, rats, and other creatures who don’t really contribute to the health and welfare of the planet.  The simplest solution would be to make lobbying illegal, but congress isn’t going to bite the hand that feeds it the most.  Did you know that one in three congressmen are millionaires?  I wonder how many were that rich when they were first elected?  Over two hundred of these influence peddlers are former congressmen who retain unrestricted access to many privileged points of contact.

Another way to neuter the effect of lobbyists would be to institute public campaign financing.  (What a nice thought, neutering lobbyists)  This sounds great but has a very slim chance of becoming a reality.  Too many moneyed interest would be against this emasculation of their influence, for instance the media who profit greatly from campaign advertising.  On the other hand, this would create the situation allowing a modern day Abraham Lincoln to run for office again.  The only way anyone can get elected to national office is to have access to very deep pockets, which means that the candidate normally comes to Washington carrying a heavy load of baggage.  In the case of The House, terms could be extended to a meaningful four years to reduce the financial pressure on the representatives to raise money first and ask questions never.

Of course, we could always remember the advice from Mrs. Wright.  Don’t vote for anyone for more than two terms of office.  And, you could follow my advice; stop electing lawyers.