aaron evans

In a little more than a week we’ll elect a new President and Congress and unless the Democratic candidates do something horribly inept or the Republican election officials do something horribly corrupt we’re likely to see a President Obama and large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. This represents an opportunity as well as a risk for the country.

To the Democrats of the next Congress, please understand that you have an opportunity to reverse the long-standing sentiment that says you cannot govern responsibly. Please show us how responsible you are by focusing on serious issues like health care, the economy, and immigration. Please look to experts in respective fields when drafting legislation and not to lobbyists.

Also realize that if you are new then you got here because you are 1) riding on the coattails of the popularity of Senator Obama, and 2) the fear that the American people justifiably have in the state of the economy. The American people haven’t elected you because of your ideology but rather because they are scared shitless and have no faith in the other guys right now; you’re the only other choice.

To Senator Obama, you have an opportunity to fundamentally change politics or to become the next President Carter. As you used to say a lot more than you do now, the politics of Washington have been corrupted by lobbyists and that the only way to fix our system is to remove special interests from the process. You know that when elected officials are indebted to a specific interest they become inflexible and unwilling to compromise. The opposite is true when elected officials are indebted to the American people. Senator Obama, please make this problem an immediate focus when you take office as it is a prerequisite for true change.

The other major change of the past 15 years that has corrupted the political system is redistricting which has lead to a House where many of the seats are completely safe for a particular party. Redistricting caused the Congress to become more partisan and less open to compromise than ever before. Senator Obama, please undo the redistricting that has fractured the Congress and causes a negative tone in politics.

There are more issues that matter and more advice to give but we should start with these two issues. Please move quickly when you take office and fix the two problems that have corrupted our process: remove the influence of lobbyists and undo Congressional redistricting. The former is a prerequisite for near-term change and the latter a prerequisite for the longer term change in politics you seek.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.