It has come to my attention that Representative government is not the form Americans want. They abhor being in charge and would rather be led than represented. They will vote for a liar before they will for someone who tells the truth. They beg for nose rings to be led by rather than to get up and help their neighbor help themselves. Even those elected to represent know this. They don't say what do you want done. No, they say, listen to me, this is how things should be done. And Americans vote for them. Americans take the easy way out. To be fair, this phenomena is probably universal. The Monguls probably cried out, "Mr. Attilla, put my head on your pike."

We insist candidates give us their views of how things should be done when we should be telling them what to do. To a degree, it is important for us to find out how candidates think and where their focus might be once elected. It is important for us to have trust in those we choose to take our place in government affairs. But that is not what our system provides us. No, instead candidates vie to come up with a formula for enlisting the greatest number of voters for what they feel is their cause. In doing so the candidates must bend what they say to suit a broad electorate. They don't tell us what they feel, they tell us what they think we feel. A great perversion of leadership and/or representation.

It is not just one party. It is not just the good guys or the bad guys. It is anyone who really wants to be elected. They are forced by the electorate to become unfaithful to themselves. On a purely local and constituent level this should be good for us. It should indicate a candidate can work for all instead of just a few. It doesn't work that way. Why? Because the candidates also are aligned with political parties which usually have an agenda quite seperate from any one constituency. As elected officials become a part of the ingrained bureaucracies of government they lose sight of their original obligation to those who elected them and decide they can join others by perverting their representation. They come to think they know better than their electors.

They probably do! I have often been disturbed by someone saying Americans are sheep. They follow blindly any leader appointed. I resent that and it makes my skin crawl, yet I know it is true. We want to be led and not bothered by the intricacies of government. We want someone to look after us and take care of us. In time we have come to expect that. Why raise your child when the government will do that for you. Why build a house when the government will do that for you? Why economize when the government will provide you with plenty? Why vote for a candidate who warns us of difficulties when we have one who tells us all is well? Why worry when we have elected others to do that for us?

If we lived in a world with infinite resources and completely transparent communications and relationships we could continue the way we are. We could get by forever allowing a few to corrupt the many. It isn't going to go down that way. We are running out of resources. We are running out of laws and customs that prevent the few from controlling the many. We are, I am afraid, selling ourselve to the Devil and he may be collecting soon. Think about it.