I recently read an article that recommends that we replace all 545 members of the House and Senate, and it is difficult for me to argue with the basic premise of "throw the bums out."
The writer of the article concludes "We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess." This is of course a noble notion that I think will solve little or nothing.
While I am but a not very humble electrical engineer and film salesman, I do have some ideas that are outside my areas of expertise. They are not new nor are they revolutionary. They are reflective of my attitudes after 50 years of being in the media business, and 76 years of life.
As an Air Force Korean War Veteran, I was studying Electrical Engineering in New York, and through my Fathers connections I worked part time in a minimum wage job in the Editorial department of a television company Screen Gems.
As time passed, my job involved ordering film elements from laboratories. One particular salesman from one of the film labs was nice to me, he always said hello, took me to lunch, and most important of all, took me to see the New York Giants play football.
He NEVER offered me money, (or a bribe), yet because he was so nice to me, I began to order a disproportionate amount of work from him because he was MY FRIEND WHO SEEMED TO RESPECT ME!
Nothing changed for me in the next 40 years. I have never taken a bribe or accepted a kickback. I have been in positions where I could have stolen many millions of dollars without any significant risk of being caught. Similarly I never offered a client a bribe in order to induce them to buy the films that I was trying to sell them. Lunch, dinner, the theater was all in order but all of that stuff was and is considered acceptable.
I often wonder if I did not "steal" from my employers because it was not the right thing to do, or if it was my fear of being apprehended and sent off to prison. It is now an appropriate moment for a major drum roll as I answer this question: I DO NOT KNOW.
And now I move along to the subject at hand by using Dictionary.com.
Lobbyist: a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest; a member of a lobby.
The film salesman who first "influenced me" was a "lobbyist" with a different name.
Just how many lobbyists are there in Washington, anyway?
A Washington Post article from January '06, reported that there were: 37,000, or 39,402, or 11,500 lobbyists, and the explanation as to the differing numbers does not really matter. If you use the smallest number, you have about twenty lobbyists for each member of Congress.
I have heard many justifications for the system we now have, and I find that most are self serving and speak to the rights of people to "address their elected officials."
Sure they are!
A partial remedy for the Congressional mess in Washington would be to once again try and change the law by lowering the bar as to what represents criminal activity by either the lobbyists or the Congress in order that the threshold for "going to jail" is lowered.
How about a non political independent law enforcement unit that watches only the Congress and the lobbyists in order that they all behave in a reasonable manner in accordance with a new series of laws crafted to "clean up the mess?"
As and until the system provides avenues for the "Monopoly" game card that tells you "go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, and do not collect $200," little if anything will change. It is the human condition that is the problem, and as and until you create "risks" for the violators, violations will continue.
And now I offer one more suggestion that will never happen.
The Network news broadcasters would include a segment of less then 30 seconds in each telecast pointing out the most outrageous occurrence in recent days by the Congress or an individual legislator.
You can bet that if broadcasters and cable news people reported on this stuff it just might keep the system a little more honest.
If all you were to do was to "throw the incumbent bums out," you will replace them with a new group of bums who will quickly assume the characteristics of the "old bums."
Is "winning" possible in this area? Probably not!
Norman Horowitz
Honest, poor, with only a few regrets