Topic: Democracy
Utah's New Minority Freshman Citizens In Utah's Congressional District 3 the voters ousted incumbent Congressman Chris Cannon during the primaries with Republican Jason Chaffetz becoming the eventual winner of the race and heading to Congress as a Freshman Representative, making those living in the district nothing more than freshman citizens, a situation repeated in several House and Senate races across the country. Since Mr. Chaffetz is a Republican and the Democrats hold a majority in both the Senate and the House we are also minority freshmen. Are you awakening to this same reality?by Gary Wood
(conservative libertarian)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
How can a group of citizens who cast their ballots in favor of change in their representative become a quieter voice? What is it, within our political system, that causes such a change? Did you vote for or demand a lesser level of representation? Or, did you even realize that if you dare to toss out your incumbent, or your incumbent decides not to run for reelection, this is the fate you face?
This is one of those little secrets the organizational structure of the legislative branches, at the federal and state level, understands and cherishes. Yet, the secret is on display for all of us to see. News coverage of politics clearly labels our public servants as freshmen or senior based on their length of time serving us, the citizens they represent. We are clearly told the titles of nobility draped upon the most senior of our servants, described by such lofty (and somehow powerful) names as Majority Leader, Majority Whip, Minority Leader, Minority Whip, Chairman and the like.
Our two party system introduced this organizational structure in the early 1900s so we have grown up with the tradition and accept it. Not only do we accept it, we give more ear to those with titles and we gaze in wonder when the personalities behind the titles are about to be changed. The press will clamor for time with one of these most senior of servants while all but ignoring those poor freshmen. In the chambers, where our voice is to be heard, the same holds true. If you want to ascend to senior power your left to play the reelection shuffle while enduring years of arm twisting by the party leadership.
All of this occurs beyond the reach of our ballots. These "leaders," who should be servants, laugh at the simplicity in which control is maintained, in the name of tradition. Our voice is silenced, the party's voice is commanding and the minority freshmen citizens shrug their shoulders for that is the result of the vote. Welcome to our representative democracy run by a two-party oligarchy. Can this really be what our experiment in a government by the people is destined to be?
The views expressed in this
article are those of Gary Wood only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Gary Wood is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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