Alexander Tytler (b.1747 d.1813) once said, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
This quote goes to the heart of why voters keep sending the same corrupt politicians back to Washington term after term after term.
Mitch McConnell has been in office for 33 years. He recently became the longest-serving senate majority leader in history. If he follows the example of Senator McCain, he will stay in office until he draws his last breath and then pass his office on to his wife.
His constituents keep sending him back, because he delivers billions of dollars to his state. He will never vote to limit his power. He, like Robert Byrd (51 years in office) and John Dingel (59 years), will stay in office unless we do something.
Our Founding Fathers were motivated to start the Revolutionary War by tyranny. England was arrogant and unresponsive to their calls for having a voice in their government. Parliament said they knew better than the colonists. But they were far away in England, while the colonists suffered the consequences of bad British policies. Unlike us, the colonists had no option to address grievances other than war.
The Founding Fathers were very opposed to an unresponsive centralized government when they sat down to write our ruling document. They saw local government as a more effective way to keep politicians accountable. They did, however, see the need for a limited central government that would provide military protection from foreign threats and manage the budget.
On the first, they have done well. Our military is second to none. However, when it comes to managing the budget and government spending, these career politicians have not done so well. It does not matter how much money the government collects: they always spend more.
Our representatives know our country is $21 trillion in debt and yet they approve budgets in excess of $1.3 trillion without blinking an eye. We need look no further than the “Honorable” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to see how successful pork barrel politics can be.
Majority Leader McConnell has been promising to cut the budget for 33 years. So far he and his willing accomplices in Congress have found ways to increase spending every time a budget is proposed. This has not discouraged him from promising to cut spending “next time.” He promises this every time he’s up for reelection.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. But fool me six times? The good news is that we can force career politicians like McConnell to balance the budget and go back to Kentucky.
We can also bring new blood into an aging group of career politicians. The average age of members of Congress is 59 compared to 40 for our Founding Fathers. At this writing there are over 100 members of Congress with “service” of over 36 years. That’s a problem!
The Founding Fathers anticipated this. In their wisdom they added Article V to the Constitution to give the people a way to overcome the tyranny of the federal government. But the media and political elites don’t want you to know about this powerful tool.
Find out for yourself how we can limit the time a politician or judge can stay in office and how much of our money they can use to buy votes. Browse our website for more information on Convention of States.
