"We the people" are losing

John Trucano

When Abraham Lincoln declared that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the earth, he could not have anticipated the times we live in. A time when politicians would allow themselves to be corrupted by money from the rich and powerful, whose desire is to stomp all over the rights of we the people.

We the people, the citizenry, once the most powerful in this nation, have become the least powerful, and now the despised. Money is the name of the game, and money means power, and we the people have increasingly less and less of it, and our voices are being silenced. We the people are losing.

Credit card companies have stuffed the pockets of politicians for over 8 years to push through radical changes in the bankruptcy laws. This amounts to a basic denial of relief for most Americans. Interestingly, these changes to not apply to businesses filing bankruptcy, with their so called reorganization plans that allow them to walk away from their debts, often forgiving millions of dollars, which is hundreds of times higher than most personal bankruptcy filings. Did anyone find it strange to hear the sound bites of congressman lecturing us about how we need a return to personal responsibility? Is this not slightly hypocritical coming from scandal riddled congress? Are they really the best to lecture us on personal responsibility, or to lecture professional baseball players on ethics as they attempted to in their recent self righteous committee meetings concerning steroids?

As spring approaches and warmer weather nears, people begin to think of the upcoming travel season, and just like clockwork, gas prices begin to soar. We’re given lame excuses every year for why this happens, and now that the oil companies have congress securely in their back pocket, they don’t find it necessary to even offer that. Why is it if it is a simple matter of supply and demand, that they cannot anticipate the increased demand and increase production to meet it? It’s not brain surgery, increased travel occurs at the same time every year. Yet when we ask our congress to at least look into this matter, into the possibility that we may be being fleeced, they say there’s nothing they can do. They won’t even consider the possibility. Yes, this same congress that can micromanage our lives, and stick their noses into our personal business, and invade our privacy from our bedrooms to our boardrooms, suddenly when it comes to high gas prices they say there’s nothing they can do. Oh, really?

Could it be that as we the people become weaker and weaker, the special interests become stronger and stronger as they line their favorite congressmen’s pocket with their money? Could it also be that it’s gotten to the point that congress is no longer afraid to face us at the polls because they know their re-election can be assured by those whom they are actually representing?

It’s time for action. It’s time for us to exert the only power we have left and that is at the ballot box. Resist the slick campaign ads of the special interests candidate and vote them all out. It’s all we can do. We must do it before it’s too late, before we’re forced to say we’re not losing the battle, we’ve lost. Let’s we the people take back our nation.