A government is a structure enacted to facilitate the development of a society, or as the American founding fathers simplified it; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We call government workers civil servants, because government is put in place primarily to serve its people. This way we can measure a government's efficiency in its capability to serve the people.
Thomas Jefferson reiterated the dangers of consolidating power under a central government. He warned of factions, self interested groups with political mobility and capital that would exploit government funds for self interested benefits at the expense of the public interest. In modern day terminology, we refer to this practice, as lobbying. The consequence is that it makes the structure of government parasitical to the people, instead of supportive. The government is fighting to maintain its interests, rather than the interest of the people.
Due to the influx of media such as T.V. which is passive information, as opposed to if he or she was reading a book or newspaper. These "programmes" we watch, allow for mass programming ironically, and propaganda dictates elections election winners. Perception is everything and media can shape a public's perception of a candidate based on the information they choose to share. So aspiring political incumbents, if they are to have a chance in Congress, have to appeal to popular media sensationalism and lobbying to consolidate funding for campaigns.
This is essentially the flaw with the bi-partisan two party system. An honest politician with the interest of the people in mind is unlikely to be voted for. Simply because their interests is in actually helping the people, would conflict financial interests of the media, and multiple other entities with financial interests in mind.
The reason is that lobbying entails financial compensation to politicians in exchange for political favors. Which manifest as bail outs to only a certain number of companies, subsidies and what is refered to us as "pork". Unrelated government funded projects to individuals hidden in the jargon of legislative paperwork. The bills passed in modern day times are generally lengthy, unnecessarily complex, with hidden lobbying agendas. Only lawyers and a few legislators actually take the time to decipher the content of these bills, essentially American people are expected to follow laws they are not even aware of, and are persecuted for not following them. The legal profession, has essentially become a profession of finding loopholes in the legislation.
The two party system is essentially perpetuating the parasitical nature of government. It is essentially "Frankenstein" a monster. A structure created to serve the people, but has ran amok and is instead serving itself. For a candidate to be nominated for either Republican or Democrat primaries, there are lots of strings attached. Some of these people mean well, but the political spotlight comes at the cost of compromising values, morals, and ideals; not only for the media and their interests, but also lobbyists who are funding their campaigns. Surprisingly they are indebted to other party members and if a piece of legislation has to be passed, it has to be passed or compromised drastically, with under the table negotiations and deals.
The government is not being held accountable for its actions, by the people because the people supposed to represent us are in Washington rather than local areas. The only real solution is localizing government, to the state, and municipal localities to maximize accountability, and to vote for third party root-movement candidates, who do not have lobbyist ties.
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