A government of the people?

We learned in school that our government was of the people, for the people, and by the people, but is it?

When you voted for your congressman or senator, had you met the person? Have you met the person yet? When have you ever seen an elected representative in a grocery store, at your church, in your school, or at your workplace? I bet for most people, they never have met an elected representative, and for those who have, were you allowed to carry on an extended conversation where you could share your political beliefs and ideology? More likely than not, your questions were either scripted or at least reviewed prior to you being able to actually ask the question.

Ever been to a townhall event? Were all your questions answered, and did you feel as if the politician knew you were present? Did you find yourself wondering how the people asking the questions were chosen and how they picked the questions in the first place?

How do politicians get elected? Ever asked yourself that question? Who paid for their commercials, and if all you know is what you see in a political ad, how do you know you are not simply voting for the best marketing agent?

Where does the money come from? Have you ever made a political donation, and if so how much was it? You probably donated less than a $100, and do you think everybody else did also? Of course they did not. So where did the millions of dollars come from that paid for all the television and print ads?

Political Action Committees (PACs) donate millions of dollars to candidates every election, and have you ever met a member of one of them? How do you know if they share your views? Do you realize that every PAC has highly paid staff members whose main goal is elect a candidate friendly to their agenda? What if the true PAC agenda is not the same as yours? What if the name of the PAC is simply chosen to make you think it supports your interests?

It is time for Americans to wake up. There isn't a politician alive who shops in the same supermarket as you. They receive six figure salaries with medical care much  better than what you will ever receive. They drive nice cars, live in nice homes in Washington DC, and eat at fancy restaurants. They don't wash their own clothes, shop at Walmart for underwear, go to Payless for shoes, or cut their own fingernails. These politicians live in DC, and come back to your district to show face every once in a while because they have to do so. But you never see them, and you don't even wonder  about how strange that might be, for a person who votes in your behalf, who affects so much of your life, for you to never even meet the person one time.

You aren't represented by a neighbor because once elected, they experience more of DC than they do of your hometown. Basically, your elected representative is a resident of DC. Your interests are being represented by a person who doesn't even live near you anymore, and his or her perspectives are built based upon scripted questions posed at phony townhall meetings where everyone cannot even ask a question and only certain people can actually speak.

Back in DC, high paid lobbyists fund your Congressperson's extracurricular activities by taking them to social engagements, vacations, dinners, ballgames, etc. When have you done any of those things? You can't even walk into your representative's office for a meeting, and if you did, you would have limited time and could only talk about the agreed upon topics.

Before you get to thinking that your elected representative actually shares your interests, think about all these points. Our government is most certainly not for the people. It is for the lifestyle of those who have been elected, and they will do whatever it takes to keep themselves in power.