Fixing What’s Broke

My fellow Americans, I have some good news, and I have some bad news. I wish to God it were different, but reality is what it is.

First the good news. On November 5, 2024, We the People had the wisdom to elect Donald J. Trump as the 47^th President of the United States of America. Between President Trump’s MAGA and DOGE teams, he is well on his way to fixing what is broken in the Article II of the United States Constitution: the Executive Branch.

In his remaining time in office, President Trump will root out the Deep State operatives planted by earlier administrations who are failing to meet the obligations of their sworn oath of office. The duties of Executive Branch employees is to carry out the policies of the sitting President, not undermine the President because of personal political bias. It is alright for employees to disagree and express their own opinions, but when all is said and done, if you take the people’s money, you do the bidding of the people’s elected representative, your ultimate boss, the President of the United States. PERIOD!

Now for the bad news and primary purpose of this commentary. The Article I branch from the United States Constitution, the Legislative Branch, is severely broken. When you look up “enterprise corruption” in the dictionary you will find a picture of the United States Capitol Building. Rather than a true honest government entity, it is a business enterprise where members can arrive as paupers, and in a very few years, become millionaires and even multi-millionaires. As a collective, they are more focused on lining their own pockets than doing the people’s business.

“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.” ~ Harry S. Truman

For the first 50 years of my life, I dare say like most Americans, I didn’t pay much attention to politics or politicians. I voted the way most people voted, for the party of my parents, the old Democrat Party. When I was in the Army, I lived in Georgia when Jimmy Carter was governor, and I thought he was a pretty good governor. When he became president, and the Iranians took the United States Embassy, I began having my doubts.

When Ronald Reagan became president, I became a Republican and began my journey of more political awareness. Now, midway through my 79^th trip around the sun, I am not particularly happy with any legacy political party.

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." ~ George Washington

George Washington nailed it. He foresaw and perfectly described, 250 years ago, exactly what the American Congress is today. Why is Congress the way it is? Sadly, it is a very simple answer; Americans have not been paying attention. We have failed to continually and seriously vet the people we send to Congress. We have failed to conform to the guidelines of the United States Constitution, and therefore allowing for the development of an elite ruling class of career politicians.

It took DOGE to smack Americans right between the eyes with a 2x4 and realize the extent of corruption in the United States government. What DOGE found should have already been found by Congress if Congress was exercising the oversight required by the United States Constitution. It is hard to have viable checks and balances when Congress is doing no checking.

"Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it." ~ George Washington

Congress could fix itself, but it isn’t likely that Congress will wreck the gravy train currently in place. A Convention of States as described in Article V of the United States Constitution could fix Congress. This too is very unlikely because many of the state politicians required to pull together a Convention of States are looking to join the federal Congressional gravy train.

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." ~ George Washington

Article I, along with the Amendment XVII of the United States Constitution, assigned the duty of controlling Congress to the people. We have the power and responsibility to fix Congress. When the Constitution was written, the Founding Fathers were wise enough to include term limits. It is two years for a Congressman in the House of Representatives and six years for a Senator in the Senate. Sadly, even though George Washington foresaw a potential problem, the Founding Fathers failed to set a limit on how many terms each member could serve. Therein lies the problem. America now has a ruling class of professional career politicians in the United States legislature.

"The power under the Constitution will always be in the people." ~ George Washington

This uniparty ruling class has done a magnificent job of feathering their own nest and putting in place rules that allow them to keep the cash flowing. At the same time, they have all kinds of activities, investigations, and committees that allow them to look like they are doing things for the country without accomplishing a damn thing. Meanwhile, due to a lack of oversight, the executive branch has gone rogue and spends money willy-nilly. No worries, they can just tax the people some more. No wonder the National Debt Clock has ticked past 37 trillion dollars.

In accordance with the United States Constitution, we can fix what is broken with Congress. To do so, we will have to stop being political couch potatoes. Based on how many people in Congress have had those jobs 20, 30, 40, 50 years or more, we have been too lazy. Instead of doing a review of the quality of work our employees (yes, members of Congress are our employees) have been doing, we simply keep sending them back to Washington time after time. What have we gotten for our money, except debt, corruption, and an out-of-control government?

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

It is time for Americans to step up and end being in Congress as a career. The procedure is simple, but the process will be hard. The simple action is to vote them out of office. The process will take a minimum of 12 years, but probably longer. The target must be any member of Congress who has served two or more terms. Each and every one of those needs to be primaried. Choose a new person to represent your party in the next election. This is what the Founding Fathers anticipated and expected. They feared a ruling class as much as they hated living under the thumb of a king. We the People should also fear the ruling class because we have seen the soft tyranny they use to enrich themselves at our expense.

America has elected the Congress we deserve because of our inattention. I firmly believe we have the President we deserve and that President deserves a better Congress. I also firmly believe that Americans deserve a Congress more fitting to our great President.