Are "We The People" Really Represented?

One of the main reasons behind the American Revolution was the British Parliament levying taxes on the colonies without any representation from us. The colonists had no say, no input, in the taxes that were slapped on them. And those taxes were ridiculous and extreme. But are we now repeating history?

With Congress attempting to sneak through legislation on the biggest tax hike in American history, (the Waxman -Markey bill, aka cap and trade) I have to ask if we're really represented. The critical question here is why they were so secretive about it. The answer is very easy on that one. It's because they knew that the American people would pitch the mother of all hissy fits if they knew what the bill was really about. Our congress, those men and women who are supposed to represent us, whose representation is critical to our government running the way it was designed, are attempting to pass legislation that they KNOW the American people don't want. So if we have these types of taxes forced on us by people who know we'd object, are we actually represented? My answer is no.

Were it not for some member's of the press, a very few of them, and the blogosphere, the American people would have been totally unaware of this massive tax bill coming up for a vote today. Our so called representatives were using the focus on the health care plan as a major diversion to sneak something by us. Were we living in the same time as our founding fathers and not in the digital information age, our reps would have succeeded in voting in an enormous tax with no input from the people. They still may succeed in passing the bill, but at least some people have had input now. But no where near enough of us.

Have we now become what so many fought and died to free us from? We're definitely headed in that direction. England levied egregious taxation on the colonies in order to pad the coffers of England. Using the money from the colonists to serve England while doing nothing for the colonists. Our current Congress is levying egregious taxation on the American people in order to pad their own pockets. They take money from the majority to serve the special interests and do nothing for the majority. They sell themselves to the highest bidder and screw the rest of us with no compunction what so ever. Ronald Reagan said - Politics is the second oldest profession, and bears a striking resemblance to the first. Ain't that the truth!

If, as we have seen, our representative are selling their votes to the highest bidder, doesn't that leave those of us without access to the auction unrepresented? I believe so. Many may argue this point and say that we still have our vote and we can vote these old reps out of office and put new ones in. But experience has shown that we're just trading one old whore for a slightly newer model. The Democrats wasted our money for 40 years so we voted them out and gave Republicans control of the congress. This worked for a short amount of time, and then they wasted our money as well. So we voted them out and the 111th congress, the bright new shiny one, has spent more of our money on useless programs in the shortest amount of time than any other Congress in history. So where is the representation in that? How can we say we are represented when we have no option for our vote who will actually perform the will of the people?

The very sad part of this whole situation is that the American people bear the brunt of the responsibility for their current situation. How many of us have no idea what is going on? We are busy with our jobs and our families and our day to day lives and we have trusted our politicians to act responsibly. That is not a trust they have earned nor a trust they deserve, and yet it is a trust we continue to give. Although some of the apathy is a result of the people knowing we are just trading one whore for another so why bother. Where then, I ask, are the people rising up to run against the whores? Where are the representatives that we need? Many, I fear, are afraid of the full body cavity search that the press would subject them to.

So where does that leave us, the not so silent majority? Out in the cold. And this will be a literal truth if Waxman-Markey passes because it will be too damned expensive to heat your house. Thomas Jefferson once said, "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." We have gone from a fear that the majority will violate the rights of the minority, to the minority violating the rights of the majority.

I close this blog with one last comparison. This from the Declaration of Independence; "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury." And now think of how our President and member's of our Congress reacted to the tea party protests. Although the American people have protested the spending of our leaders, we have been mocked and dismissed by our leaders as they arrogantly continue the behavior we so strongly objected to.

Need I really say more?