In my opinion congress (a political body set up to govern) ceased to function as intended when we stopped electing politicians. And it was absolutely guaranteed to fail when we started electing businessmen. Here is why:
At the end of a typical day a politician asks himself: 1) have my voters and my country been helped by my efforts today, 2) have they been made better, stronger, more enduring, happier and, 3) will that be enough to make them put me back in office so I can continue to loll in the lap of luzury?
At the end of the day a businessman asks himself 1) has my advertising been effective, 2) how much did sales increase, 3) why is everybody standing around, and 4) how do I get even more for myself tomorrow?
We elect people to look after us, we don’t elect them to make sure there’s a drive through window if you’re in a hurry. We elect people who want to ensure our checking accounts are real and not Ponzi schemes. We elect people who want to make sure we have a secure retirement after we have worked tirelessly for forty years. We elect people who want to represent those who must band together in order to be heard, the poor, the tired, the sick, the elderly. These are people who will be abandoned if we don’t extend them a hand. These are our friends, our families, our future.
So, in reality, we want the government to represent US. We want them to step in because we have to launch ships, fight crime, build bridges, fight fires, teach children, or maybe even just bury the dead. We want them to help us help the poor, the defenseless, the young, the old, the handicapped. We want to extend an arm to an old man crossing the street or shake the hand of a veteran and say, “thank you.” We want each and every person in this, the United States of America, to feel welcome, appreciated, and at home. It’s not that we don’t want to be there in person, it’s just that life is, well, crazy. We have so many demands placed on us. We’re trying, we’re really trying, but we can’t be everywhere at once. We need the government to help us out.
And to that end, we don’t want a government that sees each of us as a profit and loss potential. We don’t need to spend our lives on someone’s balance sheet in the “Debit” column. We are NOT A COST. We are Americans who seem to have lost track of what that means. We are not objects to be placed on a “Sale Table” to clear out inventory so the owner can make an even bigger profit next week. WE ARE THE REASON YOU ARE IN OFFICE TO START WITH. WE ARE NOT YOUR MINIONS.
Here is my pledge. If there is a “businessman” in office who claims being a “businessman” makes him superior, I will never buy his product again. I will never go in his store. I will never order from him on line. I will never do these things because he is grotesquely inadequate in that he can only think of himself and as far as I’m concerned, that is now clearly passé.
It is time for each of us to read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to think about them dispassionately, and then discuss what they actually mean. In the process of doing that, I think we will find the word “businessman” is never mentioned. Businessmen sell things, including people. Politicians govern.