Eliminating political careerism

A columnist from Massachusetts points out that Elizabeth Warren’s failed run for the presidency resulted in a loss of representation for the State:

According to ProPublica, Warren has missed 53.5% of her votes during this session of Congress. This makes her the third-most absent member of the Senate. (Remember: We lowly taxpayers pay Warren $175,000 for this job.)

She clearly decided that running for president was a valid excuse to neglect and ignore her Senate duties. Yes, this despite the fact that she pretty much promised Massachusetts voters in 2018 that if they reelected her, she would not run for president. Then, of course, she changed her mind just a few months later and decided to run and skip out on her current office to do so.

This is a slap in the face to the people of Massachusetts, who elected her to a six-year term just in 2018, undoubtedly with her promise to actually serve this term in mind. Turns out, serving in the Senate was just a backup option for Warren in case her presidential aspirations didn’t work out.

In other words, it’s all about serving her interests, not those of her constituents, whom she failed to represent in Washington more than half the time.  This is a bipartisan problem, and I’ve written about it before.  Elected officials should never take their current office as a given, even while reaching for more influence. 

Aside from term limits, the best way to end political careerism is to require people to serve out the full elective term of office (barring debilitating illness, injury or misconduct), and to ban the practice of running for more than one office at once (i.e. president and senate).  It’s bad enough how much running for reelection shapes an officeholder’s term.  Trying to grab the next rung of the ladder while keeping one hand on the current one “just in case” is the opposite of public-mindedness.  Too many special elections (which cost taxpayer $$) occur because John Q. Politician was elected to two different offices simultaneously, or else was picked as a political appointee while serving in an elected office.  In a country of nearly 330 million people, nobody is that indispensable.  If someone believes they are called to greater responsibility, they should demonstrate a commitment to it by fulfilling any current public obligations, then focusing on convincing the public or an executive to give them such an opportunity.  Such an expectation by the people would mean candidates would be out of political work from time to time.  And that’s not a bad thing, considering that also happens from time to time to the citizens they allegedly represent.  Let our would-be representatives live like the rest of us occasionally.

We’re all on the border, now

It doesn’t matter where you live in the United States — the current invasion is a local issue:

Illegal immigrants are being secretly flown to Massachusetts ((without the normal ID and TSA dance you and I have to endure, incidentally.  Still think TSA is about security? — Jemison)) and kept in local lockups in an under-the-radar operation that has alarmed lawmen who are raising health and security concerns amid recent spikes in detainees coming up from Texas during the latest border crisis.

“We’re all becoming border sheriffs now with these people being carted all over the country,” said Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson.

“The blame goes all the way up. It’s a travesty and people ought to be upset,” Hodgson said. “This is un-American and has raised the stakes to the public health and public safety threat.”

Hodgson said buses from his facility were recently used to transport six planeloads of illegals sent up from San Antonio to Hanscom Field in Bedford en route to the Plymouth County 
Correctional Facility.

The sheriff said he’s also heard of 100 immigrant children recently arriving in his county. But he couldn’t say if they are part of the deluge of 50,000 unaccompanied kids crossing the nation’s southern border.

Homeland Security has plenty of its own buses, too — complete with covered windows (metaphor alert regarding government transparency).

It should disturb every citizen to realize that our government is essentially providing the logistical backbone of an invasion of our own nation.  Far from fulfilling its duties to enforce the border (without which function no nation is truly sovereign), it is enabling tens of thousands of unvetted individuals to access every corner of our land.  This is beyond dereliction of duty.  It is aiding and abetting a tidal wave to accelerate demographic changes that will in turn impact how our nation functions.  Think I’m exaggerating?  Fine: go count how many stable, prosperous, free-market-limited-government nations you find south of the Rio Grande.  The simple fact is that even if this human tsunami is seeking a better way (rather than simply handouts), they simply have no idea of or experience with how such a system is supposed to function!  A nation can assimilate small numbers of newcomers over time and still retain its identity.  It cannot withstand the importation of massive voting blocks with alien ideologies and no incentives to identify with their new society.

Those in power know it, too — so the question becomes why are they so eagerly embracing and enabling this event?  The obvious answer is that for two centuries the American people have largely resisted letting government do whatever it wants.  Diluting that particular political DNA provides more opportunity for activist government — not least in mediating between people groups with vastly different visions of how things should be. *This* is where the ‘multiculturalism’ fetish leads.

But when the process has begun to replace an electorate, you have to ask the question what the intentions are toward those you are replacing.  Americans need to realize those buses with covered windows can serve more than one purpose.  As can various “holding facilities.”  After all, it’s telling that despite all the various crises and threats in the world today ((hey, did you hear ISIS now comes with uranium?)) that the Attorney General’s nightmares are about ‘homegrown extremists.’  Maybe if you didn’t let so many people into the country willy-nilly, there wouldn’t be as many ‘homegrown’ extremists!  But then, that’s not really what he means by ‘homegrown.’

What he’s really concerned about is that Americans may re-read that part of the Declaration of Independence that talks about “…when any government becomes destructive of these ends (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness), it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and establish new government…”  Yeah, that’s pretty extremist talk for a people who’ve become accustomed to just taking whatever Uncle Sam chooses to dish out.  But if the government becomes accustomed to moving around massive numbers of people, and decides to employ that skill towards a new “Trail of Tears” for current Americans, Holder may find his nightmares well-founded.

The nation’s governors need to do more than ‘visit the border’ for photo ops.  They need to inform Uncle Sam that if he won’t do his job, they will — do include blocking any federal movements of illegal migrants into their States.

Because if the States won’t secure their borders, there won’t be any left under this Administration…