Representative Government Under Siege

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/sBzBj)

Following election campaigns of incumbents and aspiring office holders in my community and beyond, I am outraged that our tenet of government of the people, by the people, and for the people continues to be relegated to a morally repugnant perversion of democratic principles we so proudly promote to the rest of the world.



Election outcomes simply no longer reflect the will of the majority on all levels of government. Instead, most contests are fueled by vast amounts of money from special interest groups and run strictly as business ventures with shrewdly calculated return on investment criteria, at the expense of developing public policy for the greatest common good.



Election campaigns keep following the same unsavory pattern: short on substance and long on platitudes. Too often candidates of what I call the "Club" -- the Republican and the Democratic Party -- on one hand promise to champion the interests of their electorate's majority; yet on the other, blatantly pursue self-serving agenda.



Last time I checked what I consider Main Street America -- ordinary middle-class income earners and retirees who struggle mightily to make ends meet -- still represent the majority. Yet our lawmakers rearely respond to their real-life, bread-and-butter concerns beyond spin doctor-generated, condescending lip service; namely, affordable access to basic, universal health care delivery, education, and housing -- arguably the very requisites for any nation's productivity and political stability.



Club members of the two-party system, beware! Main Street America -- our country's most powerful voting bloc -- is a very angry place. I know. I live there. It has reached a breaking point to the extent that some of these ordinary middle-class income earners and retirees have given up believing in the American Dream, lost faith in the ballot box, and no longer feel that they have a stake in society: setting the stage for disillusionment, mistrust, cynicism, alienation, and eventually social unrest -- hardly conducive conditions for a viable democracy.



Our election system that facilitates buying public office at will is broken. It's imperative that we -- the majority -- step up and demand campaign finance reform now, if for no other reason that for the sake of our children and their offspring. By way of sheer numbers, we command a more powerful voice at the ballot box than all other demographic voting blocs combined. Let's capitalize on that numerical advantage. Let's send our lawmakers the unequivocal message that ego-driven charades of one-upmanship and the money trails leading to enrichment schemes will be exposed and summarily rejected at the ballot box.



We can't affect change from the sidelines. We must step on the playing field. Being an immigrant-turned, proud U.S. citizen, the once- American way has afforded me the opportunity of improving my lot in life markedly. In return, it's my turn now to give something back. Publicizing the plight of our nation's majority living on Main Street America, I suppose, is a good start, the right thing to do, and I hope a bit contagious as well.



Mohandis K. Gandhi, later known as "Mahatma," the Great Soul, left us with the reminder that we "must be the change we want to see in the world." If you agree, why not join me in becoming part of this change?