Who do our Leaders Work For?

1. 0

   SirDentposted 13 years ago

   Unless I am very mistaken, the leaders we elect are supposed to work for the people.  Does this mean we should be able to fire them if they do nbot do what they are supposed to do?  Why do their terms have to end before we can get rid of them?
   
   If a contract is written and the terms of the contract are not met, dismissal is in order of the other party wants to use their right to do so. 
   
   Does, or should, this also work in government?

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      livewithrichardposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You are mistaken, they do not work for us they represent the party that elected them.
      
      The Constitution set very clear procedures on how to remove elected officials and the reasons why they should be removed. Electing a bad representative is a consequence of having a party system. When you vote for a party you get the Bad, the Ugly, and sometimes the Good.
      
      
      
      Because of the procedures involved to remove representatives. It is very costly. Not only do you have to muster up enough support from the electorate you have to muster the support of the representative's peers. It's their peers in Congress that have to initiate the process. Can you imagine the price tag of lobbying for the removal and then hold a special election if the removal occurs?

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         R. J. Lefebvreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         livewithrichard,
         Sounds right to me, either party is bad news. Perhaps if the American people had the capability for better control of their behavior and compensation we would be an envied nation.
         Ronnie
         
         Ps, hi Richard.

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      rachellrobinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The way we "fire" them is at election time, if you disagree with a politician right now who is coming up for reelection then you have the ability to go vote and if enough people agree with you that said politician isn't doing their job they will loose it, in effect get fired. They just get a little bit longer than most individuals to screw around and not do a job before they get canned. November 2nd is going to be here really fast

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2. 77

   lovemychrisposted 13 years ago

   We did fire them. We voted in Obama. Your side now wants to overthrow our decision.
   
   Who's the contract--breaker here?

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      SirDentposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      
      
      Nearly every elected official in the USA.  All the way down to comittee men and women.

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3. 61

   Ohmaposted 13 years ago

   Setting aside my feelings and opinions on our current political leadership I think that I would like to see an easier way for the people to hold all politicians accountable.
   The problem of political leaders running rampant in government is not now and never has been limited to one party. Both sides cave equally under the allure of what benefits them and their special interests and quickly forget that they are elected officials there to serve the best interests of all of the people.

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      paradigmsearchposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Excellently said!

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   2. 56

      R. J. Lefebvreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Ohma,
      The entire system needs a radical change-perhaps with a referendum by the the American people that translates to a positive change. The way I see it now is that the commerce industries run the US Government through our elected puppet representatives. If the elected wish not to cooperate as a puppet the commerce industry knows how to entice them with an option to play by their rules or resign in shame.
      Ronnie

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4. 65

   Ralph Deedsposted 13 years ago

   Thanks to inadequate campaign finance laws at the federal, state and local levels worsened by the Supreme Court's decision last year that corporations and unions under the First Amendment have the same speech privileges as people under the law, we're at the mercy of anonymous political contributions by oil billionaires, drug companies, insurance companies, coal companies, mining companies, and apparently even contributions from overseas corporations this year in the campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Sad state of affairs for our democracy.

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      R. J. Lefebvreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Ralph,
      We need to broadcast the likes of your comments to all the voters who have retained their power to think for themselves, not by media influence. Every passing day we the people are loosing control of our government; who is to blame-we the people.
      Ronnie

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5. 59

   Petra Vlahposted 13 years ago

   All politicians are working to protect their own benefits (and they are many as we all know). Staying in office is all they care about; everything else is just talk and getting people drunk on pure water

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6. 82

   donotfearposted 13 years ago

   .....work for?  Could it be.....
   
   S A T A N!!!
   
   

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7. 74

   Arthur Fontesposted 13 years ago

   We have a city councilman that was arrested recently for soliciting a police officer posing as a prostitute.
   
   Brian Bigelow refuses to resign and still sits on our cities council.  We must have a way to terminate a hypocritical criminal.
   
   He did resign from the local school board.
   
   
   
   http://www.heraldnews.com/features/x190 … hool-board

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      Brenda Durhamposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, there should be a way to fire people like that.
      My little town has the same problem; (not a problem of solicitation of prostitutes, but a problem with corrupt leaders).
      
      Yes, SirDent, they SHOULD be working for us, but apparently few of them actually do.

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         Druid Dudeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         They work for the space aliens. Seen it in the Enquirer.

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            Brenda Durhamposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I believe it!  lol

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      livewithrichardposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I read the linked post, very interesting. 
      
      Doesn't your city council have an Ethics Board of Review?
      Do they have open city council meetings where the public can raise issues?
      Even if they are closed meetings, you have rights under the Freedom of Information and can request the meeting minutes to see if any of his fellow councilmen/women have brought up the issue.
      
      But the real question, should his entire public and private life be destroyed over a misdemeanor? One that he didn't even get to enjoy, I might add   Wouldn't it be more appropriate if he were to make a public apology and ask for forgiveness?
      
      Not directing this at you Arthur, but what do you people actively do to try and get an elected official removed other than bitch about it on an unrelated forum? How would you start the process at the local level?

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   csmcmanusposted 13 years ago

   the bilderberg group
   
   they run everything

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9. 63

   mintinfoposted 13 years ago

   Our leaders work on our behalf but the current system of governance was designed to avoid anarchy. The system did not come about over night but took years of fine tuning. The system is still dynamic and open to change but since the politicians love it it would take a revolution or coups d'état to dramatically change it.
   
   While it may seem like a simple job I can only imagine the complexity of implementing policies once a leader is elected. Every four years you would have to clean house and put in all new senators that belong to the same political party of the president that you elect. Very dangerous right. Especially when everyone didn't vote for that president and his policies. The system is designed with checks and balances.
   
   The reason why it seems as if nothing gets done is because of partisan politics. But without partisan politics the country would not be practicing democracy. The key is for them to learn to work together for the common good of the country. Hate it or not you have to live with it.

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10. 76

    Mighty Momposted 13 years ago

    I think one problem is we don't have clear "standards" of performance for our elected officials. Not breaking the law is a pretty low standard. But really, do we really know how hard our representatives in Washington are working? And do we evaluate them based on what they are able to "get" for us folks back home? Or do we evaluate them on their "ability" to pass federal legislation we agree with?
    And don't forget, your senator is 1 out 100.
    Your representative is 1 out of 435.
    You can count their voting record. But I think a lot of their real work is done at the committee level and we don't really see that in the media.
    
    I'm not defending anyone here, or even the system. I'm just saying that it's ... complicated.

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