Reasons to Fix Our Democracy Podcast Series

#1: Reason to Fix Our Democracy - Congress Isn't Doing Its Job

Episode Summary

Today’s “Another Reason to Fix Our Democracy” is because a majority of those we’ve elected to represent us in Congress and lead our nation, together with many of our Court system’s judges, are not, and have not for several decades, been doing their job. They have not been properly representing the common good of us all and our nation.

Episode Notes

Hello. I’m Rick Hubbard and this is the first in a series of podcasts about our need to fix America’s dysfunctional democracy. This podcast series is titled “Reasons to Fix Our Democracy,” and each podcast will highlight “another reason to fix our democracy”. I’ll post them periodically, beginning as I prepare for walking across America to advocate with others for this same issue.

The Reasons to Fix Our Democracy podcast series is part of Walking To Fix Our Democracy, a national effort to fix many problems, coupled with a very long walk sparked by Rick Hubbard that will begin in Los Angeles about October 1st, 2022 and finish with an event at the steps of our Capitol in Washington D.C. about 15 months later.

Episode Transcription

Podcast #1 - A Majority of Our Elected Representatives Are Not Doing Their Job

This is not what our Constitution intended.

Therefore, on behalf of millions of Americans, in what follows, I raise my voice to say directly to a majority of you in Congress, to you who lead our government, and to many of you judges presiding within our courts, that you are not properly doing your job.

When you deliberately enact laws, regulation and policy that place your own re-election interests, those of your wealthy and influential campaign funders, and those of your political party above the common, broad interests of the American people and our nation, “You are not doing your job!”
When you emphasize the rights we all have due to our Constitution and Bill of Rights, but fail to emphasize that each right is balanced by an appropriate level of responsibility and that a small percentage of us may not exercise our rights in ways that deny those same rights to the greater percentage of all of us, “You are not doing your job!”
When you adopt rules that allow small but significant percentages our representatives in Congress to block action that would benefit the majority of us all on climate change; health care; education; infrastructure; voting rights; financial protections; consumer protections; and much more, “You are not doing your job!”
When in the face of a pandemic like COVID-19 and its many variants, you fail to allow our federal government to enact and enforce reasonable, science based, requirements for all citizens to follow, both for our own protection and the economic and social well-being of the greatest percentage of all Americans and our nation, “You are not doing your job!”
When you enact or interpret laws, regulations and policies that benefit specific and well connected businesses, industries and individuals by allowing them to further increase their own income and wealth by taking it right out of the pockets of large numbers of all Americans with higher than necessary prices due to the pricing and other protections you have created for them, “You are not doing your job!”
When you limit voting access for specific groups of individuals who might not favor your political party or position, “You are not doing your job!”
When you set the rules of our political process to protect the two major parties and disadvantage all independents and other potential political parties, “You are not doing your job!”
When you support the advantages of capitalism in America, without recognizing and regulating capitalism’s nasty and damaging side effects, and you do not require that capitalism benefit the greatest possible percentage of all Americans, “You are not doing your job!”
When you allow capitalism in the richest country in the world to drive wages as low as they will go so long as someone shows up to do the work, and do not set a minimum wage high enough so that workers who work a normal full work week can earn enough to at least afford to live in a very frugal manner and feel in control of their lives and well-being, “You are not doing your job!”
When you stand by in the richest country in the world and allow almost half of American workers to live paycheck to paycheck, therefore robbing their self-esteem by making them dependent on a patchwork of often inadequate, time consuming and underfunded government support programs, “You are not doing your job!”
When you allow capitalism in the richest country in the world to increasingly funnel its winnings to an ever-smaller percentage of the very wealthiest amongst us, thus dramatically increasing inequality for everyone else and creating great resentment among large segments of our society, which, in turn, destabilizes our country and undermines our nation’s security, “You are not doing your job!”
When you allow the richest country in the world to not have a system to provide excellent health care to all Americans at the least total system wide cost in a manner that is financially sustainable into the future, “You are not doing your job!”

I’ll stop now, though I could easily go on with many more specific examples of how by your failure to adequately and effectively address many other issues in ways that would also benefit the interests of the greatest possible percentage of all Americans and our nation, “You are not doing your job!”

Sadly, a majority of those of you we voters have chosen to represent us in Washington have, once there, been offered even greater and more self-serving incentives to represent other interests than those of our own public interest and our nation. In short you have become increasingly compromised, many say corrupted, over the past four to five decades.

You now primarily serve the reelection and personal interests of yourselves as incumbents, your political party, your biggest and most influential donors, your campaign consultants, and the media, all of whom benefit massively. Meanwhile, the American people, whose interests you are supposed to serve, have never been more dissatisfied.

And this is only the first of many reasons we citizens must fix our democracy. America badly needs candidates who will make fixing our democracy the centerpiece of their campaigns, publicly set forth their plan to accomplish this, and then explain to us all why their plan is broad and comprehensive enough to result in representation that prioritizes the common good of us all and our nation.

So listeners, sign up and you’ll be notified when the next "Another Reason to Fix Our Democracy” is released.