Having just celebrated our 233rd year of independence,
it is only fitting that we reflect for a moment
upon the hard work of our Founding Fathers.
If we were to broadly sum up the key differences
between our Founding Fathers and today's politicians,
what would we say?
Our Founding Fathers worked day in and day out
for weeks to form the Constitution of the United
States. They fought, bickered, theorized, examined
history and discussed the situation in detail.
After weeks of debate, they came up with a document
a few pages in length - our Constitution.
This document has stood the test of time. It
was so carefully and well- written that other
nations have used it as a basis for their constitutions.
For today's politicians, a 900-page bill can
have 300 pages added to it in the middle of the
night and be passed by the House hours later.
A cell phone law can get through legislators who
neglect to make text- messaging illegal. How could
120 legislators plus all of their staff members,
legislative analysts and consultants miss something
so obvious? Of course, the cell phone law doesn't
make much sense in the first place, as almost
everyone drives with only one hand on the wheel
anyway.
The examples of political malpractice are almost
limitless.
So, what is the difference between today's politicians
and our Founding Fathers?
Our Founding Fathers took the time to do the
job right.
For the most part, no one is going to read a
bill hundreds of pages long, except for those
who stand to profit from its use.
Regardless of who put it together, a bill that
long, compiled in a matter of days, is going to
have major problems. It's going to necessitate
more laws to fix the problems it causes.
The way to turn this around is to get today's
politicians to do what our Founding Fathers did.
We need to make our politicians take the time
to do the job right.But it is impossible to do
the job right if few to none of our legislators
are reading the bills.
A major step in the right direction would be
to require legislators to read a bill before they
are allowed to vote in favor of it. That's what
the Honor in Office Act would do.
Most of our legislators came into office to do
the right thing. Because of numerous factors,
many of them have lost their way.
We need to give the newly elected and the honest
legislators a tool by which they can defend themselves
against peer pressure and the unscrupulous. We
need a tool by which we can start to defend ourselves
against dishonest politicians.
The Honor in Office Act can help keep our legislators
in line. Go to www.honorinoffice.org/measure.php
and read about it for yourself.
