OPINION: Far too much politicking and far too little governing

We waste trillions of dollars and millions of hours of effort on the political wars, and practically none on protecting our citizens from the abuses of big business, big education, big government, and all other concentrations of power. We desperately need to get back to a society where we the people can lead our individual lives as we wish without constant disruption and intimidation by power groups with loud voices.

George Washington was right when he warned against party politics in his farewell address. We have allowed our society to devolve into a constant war between two major political parties. Any tactics they can use to win elections are adopted. And the losers of elections never accept defeat. They immediately start attacking the winners so as to limit the effectiveness of their governments. This abuse of our society will only end when we find a way to put drastic limits on all political parties.

How can we do that? We can start by enforcing strict term limits. If the legislators will not do that, we the people can do it at the ballot box. If we start voting out politicians who have overstayed their usefulness, we will have a greater chance of influencing them to make needed reforms.

It was never the intention of our founders to have professional politicians in charge of government. Their idea was that we chose people from among our ranks to represent us for a short time, then return to their communities and their normal activities. I think we need to reinforce that idea.

We need a limit to the number of years each individual can serve in elective office. And I mean all elective offices. No one should be allowed to serve more that 20 years total in elective offices, and that includes everything from city council to president. No one should be able to earn a retirement benefit by serving in elective office. Representing the people should be a task, a responsibility, not a primary source of income, or a career.

Another step we ought to take is to set real limits on political donations. Only those people eligible to vote in any election should be allowed to donate money or time to the candidates involved. That means that only registered voters can make donations, and they can donate only to candidates for whom they can vote. As I said, when we select a person to a represent constituency, they should not be expected to represent anyone or any group outside that constituency

Finally, we need to set specific time limits on all political campaigns. For example, we might limit the time for local races to six weeks. Limit the time devoted to state and congressional campaigns to six months, and a strict limit of one year for presidential campaigns.

We have far too much politicking and far too little governing going on here. It is time for a real change!

Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frankgillispie671@msn.com. His website can be accessed at http://frankgillispie.tripod.com/