Saturday, June 16, 2007

Looking for honesty and integrity

Michael Barone has an article in Friday's National Journal entitled Open Field Politics that pretty well describes what is going on in American politics today.


".....Now we seem to be entering a new period, a period of open-field politics. It seems to be a time when there are no permanent alliances, when new leaders arise with new strategies and tactics, when the voters, instead of forming themselves into two coherent and cohesive armies, wander about the field, attaching themselves to one band and then another, with no clear lines of battle and no landmarks to rally beside....."


It is an excellent article and I commend it to everyone.


I think it is clear that what we are seeing is that the voters are pretty sick of the "business as usual" in Washington, and are casting about for a solution. Neither party so far has come up with the right performance. Both Republican and Democratic promises to change are ignored after the elections, and the same corrupt practices in the Congress and the Executive continue, whomever is elected. I think we will continue to see this until one party or the other, or hopefully both, clean up the mess, and start doing the nation's business honestly and with integrity.



With so much money being collected to fund the various elections, it is going to be very difficult. The old saw that politicians try to sell the public that the money doesn't buy anything is disproved by the "earmark" process, if by nothing else. Until something is done to get absolute transparency in the process, the corrupt practices will continue.

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