ARE YOU LISTENING?

 

As I watch the clown show currently posing as a presidential election I find myself coming back to the same simple question. 

It is a question that I would ask the 535 members of the United States Congress.

ARE YOU LISTENING?

I know that in recent days we have all been caught up in Trump’s twitter wars and stories of his not paying taxes for the better part of two decades.

(As an aside…I find Trump’s liberal use of tax code loopholes to shelter his fortune far less disconcerting than the revelation that this self-proclaimed business genius lost a billion dollars in one year!)

But I would like to take a moment to leave the daily tabloid headlines behind and look at the far bigger message emanating from this campaign fiasco.

The American people are seriously pissed off; and in a manner never seen before they are demanding change.  They’re not out there brandishing pitchforks…at least not yet.  But they are using the most effective method they have to legally make their voices heard.  The ballot box. 

Think about it for a moment.

Disgruntled voters on the left nearly nominated a self-identified socialist to head their ticket.  On the right, conservatives have lined up behind a Washington outsider that by any traditional measure is totally unfit to serve as president.  If you add Bernie Sanders supporters to those supporting Donald Trump you get about 60-65% of the electorate that is palpably pissed off at Washington.  They may be miles apart on the direction they would take the country but they share a deeply felt dissatisfaction with business as usual.  60-65%…that’s one helluva mandate.

In my mind it is a message that should raise the hairs on the necks of our elected leaders in congress.  After all who can blame the public for their dissatisfaction?  Whether you are a liberal or a conservative; if you are a middle or lower class voter the system has not worked in your favor for decades.  Yet in spite of years of protestations from the masses, congress continues to do nothing.

The Founders entrusted congress with the responsibility of writing and passing legislation that moves the country as a whole forward.  But for decades congress has been more interested in catering to those who fill their coffers and assure their job security than helping the masses.  The art of negotiating and writing meaningful substantive legislation has been replaced with obfuscation and obstructionism hell bent on keeping opponents from achieving any political gains.

This past week congress patted itself on the back for passing a short term ten week omnibus funding bill to keep the federal government running.  The thought of an actual budget long since discarded as politically unattainable.  Absent from the bill any federal assistance for the people of Flint, Michigan who have been without clean drinking water for two years due to government mismanagement.  A case of government malpractice as abhorrent as any in recorded history.

And then they went home…  Congress recessed for the next 46 days.  They could have stayed in DC and worked on creating jobs or repairing our infrastructure or fixing an education system that is failing our children or funding entitlement programs or dealing with an undeclared war in Syria that the military has been fighting for two years. 

Instead, they went home.  Off to their districts to campaign for another term of doing nothing to help the American people.  46 days. 

According to their 2015 calendar… congress will be in session…attending to the people’s business…a total of 114 days.  Not a bad deal for $179,000 plus bennies.

BTW…congress said they would address the disaster in Flint when they return AFTER the elections…

Is there any wonder that voters in this country are pissed?

I believe the people in this country have fired a warning shot across the bow of congress.  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders…even Gary Johnson and Jill stein…clear evidence that business as usual will no longer be tolerated. 

We’ve seen anti-government movements before.  This feels very different.

I wonder if congress is listening.