Remember in November

Our United States Constitution begins with the words "We the People of the United States, ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Many interpret this to mean that the authority to govern comes from the people. In recent times, we act as if we've forgotten that our government was intended to be 'of the people, by the people, and for the people'. We've forgotten that we are the ones who choose the representatives who lead us. OR WORSE, we've forgotten that we allow others to choose for us by simply choosing not to vote. We've forgotten that 'we the people' are at fault too when we choose to allow how we are being represented to continue, by the simple act of not voting.

Some may tell you that all this is a sign of a failed government system, and that the government needs to change. Respectfully, I disagree.

It is politics as usual that is the problem, not our government system.

We forget that we the people grant our representatives the power to govern over us. We forget that we are the ones that reaffirm that power when we re-elect a career politician. American government has not failed, we have simply forgotten that the people have a role in government too. It is not “the people ” .vs. “the government”, simply because we the people are the most powerful branch of government. We act as though we have forgotten that, or perhaps were never taught it quite that way in our schools.

Federal elections come by every two years, in November. That makes November a good time to remind ourselves of the things we've found objectionable about politics as usual and how we are being represented. At election time, the only part of the government that we can affect is the representatives that we vote for. That is our power. Others methods we may try are to make new laws, or amend the Constitution, or bring legal cases to Federal Court. All of those only end up costing the taxpayer more money. The one cost effective thing we can do is Vote.

So, here are some of the phrases we may have forgotten that originated with our politicians:

• "Sit Down and Shut Up"
• "The president will write an executive order"
• "Bipartisanship"
• "How many people will you kill today?'"
• "The Constitution is Out-Dated"
• "We can keep track of those guns."
• "The State of the Union is Strong"

Video's for some of these are below.

They say charity begins at home, but sadly, the last few times I have shared with those of my family it has caused them to lose benefits or entitlements. That leaves me with the impression that if I help someone who has fallen on hard times, they will in fact be worse off. Quite simply, that is wrong. We should not have to be concerned about hurting people by helping them. It leaves us with the impression that the government wants to control the handouts.

You can have all the good intent you want when you make a law to help people, but if it is administered in such a way that those who seek help become dependent upon the bureaucracy, and only the bureaucracy, then only the bureaucrats will successfully hold jobs. The idea of limiting government is to reduce the size of the bureaucracy, decrease the number of laws, decrease regulation, and thus decrease the number of people needed to enforce or administer those laws. My goodness, we even have a separate bureaucracy now that administers tax breaks, and apparently does so unfairly. What is the cost -vs- benefit on that?

It is important to remember that our voting power also applies to our Congressmen and Senators. For that reason, you may want to keep in mind that there are still Senators whose States sued to overturn their Senators votes. The original intent of our system of government, was to have Senators represent for their States. That is what we are taught in school. It is now apparent that their allegiance is to their party. This is something that needs to change - partisans have been playing King of the Hill with our country for too long.

For that reason, I added a link to to a song some of us grew up with. Hopefully, it will help remind our elected what we were taught about the Constitution. Some of you will be too young to have heard this, and some will not have heard it simply because they were not educated here in America.

Either way, it is a memorable tune.

The one consistent thing that seems to happen after every election is that the elected step forward with the declaration that their victory is to be perceived as a mandate from the People. The causes they choose to put forward as their after the vote mandate have varied, but we wonder, why did they pick that particular cause this time? Most times, we come to recognize they simply sought their elected position so that they could do things their way. Nearly always, the result feels like it is done TO us, rather than FOR us.

The underlying concerns about representation will not likely go away with just one election. The message "you work for us, not us for you"' probably will not be fully appreciated until after a large number of career politicians have been voted out. They cannot all be changed this year. Keep that in mind in 2014, 2016, and following years. The way we convey that message is to vote.

We need representatives who represent, not career politicians who regard their congressional seat as a throne.

November is the time to remember that it is about representation.

November is our time to remember that representatives work for the people.

November is also the time to remember that when you you ask for more from government that you are really asking for government to grow the bureaucracy so they can administer taking what you want from your taxes and hand it back to you or others..

Remember in November, and Vote.