Here’s How to Manage Our Politicians
MANAGEMENT
It is of course essential that such an organization be superbly managed within its own workforce. All the principles applied to elected officials must also be applied within the organization itself. Similar goals would be applied to the organization itself. Similar methods of appreciation and reward would be used in the organization’s internal website and compensation packages.
FUNDING
Because it is accepted as a given that there would be both conservative and liberal organizations of the kind described in this article, funding can be done in the same way as for any political action group or think tank.
ACCOUNTABILITY
In order to insure that the organization reflects the will of the people, a national opinion poll would be conducted regularly, asking members of the public who identify themselves as conservatives, and who rate themselves as very familiar with the organization, to rate their degree of satisfaction with the organization. If ratings fall below 75% Somewhat or Very Satisfied for three continuous quarters, top management of the organization would be changed.
CONCLUSION
The creation of an organization to provide proper management, direction, and recognition for work well done is a responsibility that we the people have towards our elected officials, who are our employees.
Our politicians are in the difficult position of being poorly managed. No one lays out for them the specific goals they are expected to achieve. They are continuously criticized, continuously in danger of losing their jobs, but systems to provide them with direction and recognition for work well done are absent.
Creation of an organization of the kind described in this article would not only be a paradigm shift in the relationship of the people to their elected officials; it would also close the loop on that relationship in a way that is sorely needed.
The only issue I have with this idea, and it’s a big one, is that we would have politicians, especially those in Congress, attempting to put forth enough effort to get the rewards, political donations, high scores etc…. Without actually doing anything.
It’s easy to put forth an effort. If a conservative Congressional representative wanted to make some points, just put forth a bill requiring a balanced budget or a bill to considerably shrink the Department of Education. The bill would be voted on and make it through the majority Republican House but would quickly die in the Senate. Even if it made it through the Senate, the president would veto it.
The Republicans in the House could even conspire in this idea by voting for popular bills, en masse, knowing they would never make it through the Senate or never be signed by the President. They would get their points, they would get their rewards, they would look good, maybe even sound good but nothing would get done!
It would be a lot of sound and fury, meaning nothing!
How is that any different than the current state?
Reading through the list of goals, I was struck by the fact that most of them are the exact, diametric opposite of what the left favors/opposes.
Dreamer.
Well your theory works pretty good on paper, but it doesn’t work in the real world. We have the Marxist Media who are the guardians of the Demon Party. They skew, lie, distort, constrict, and eliminate stories to fit their world view. In fact, they coordinate stories every morning in their phone call. Obama would NEVER have gotten elected if the Marxist Media had explored his ties with Ayres, Dohrn, Kahlidi, Wright, Farrakan, etal much less demand that he prove he was a natural born citizen (and retained his citizenship). Instead, what we got for stores marveling at Obama’s pant crease and Matthews getting a thrill down his leg.
Fox News and the conservative talk radio help, along with the internet, but with so many people unable and unwilling to study what the parties standard for and who their congresspeople really are we get what we get. And it is wackos like Anthony Weiner, Kucinich, and an impeached judge (they’re aint no rules).
Then there is the cheating. The Demons work teadiously to prevent voters from having to show an ID, plus ballot stuffing, voter rolls unpurged, and early voting and open primaries. We have ACORN running around for YEARS abetting voter fraud, and yet it took a big scandal to get them unfunded. ACORN was even slated to run the census. The media should have been absoutely appalled, but the Marxist Media gave barely a yawn. Yet, they spent a MONTH attacking George Allen over Macacca.
Very well stated PattyMor. Since ACORN was reportedly unfunded and shown for what it stood for, I understand that it simply made itself over and is still operating but under different names. Due to the marxist media we the people are not being informed about this, even Fox, the conservative talk show hosts etc. fail to pursue this subject.
The Marxist Media places the ball in your court with every advertisement of goods or services they provide. Advertising operating expense is deemed tax deductible and simply added to the cost of every product that unwary consumers purchase. No organization or agenda is needed to use media misinformation to inversely diminish the financial bottom line supporting their biased agenda. Propagation of truth found on the internet will assist in your identification of the media’s total denial, half truths and outright malicious deception. Media commentators are well paid for their treachery but no one is required to believe,—– yet. The purse strings of their whole operation hang openly before their victims for all to use at will. Making changes from the top down must survive more rigged elections. ACT NOW——then vote later and don’t get left behind on the eligibility issue at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwhKuunp8D8&feature=player_embedded
“Principle: Reward failure.”
Of course this is already done, but the wrong kind of failures are given a free pass.
Failure is trying your damndest, whatever the obstacle, and not succeeding despite your efforts. It is not getting caught in malfeasance.
Thus, some low-level functionary who makes an innocent mistake is purged as a scapegoat; someone such as Charlie Rangel who violates all manners of moral and ethical responsibilities so as to enrich himself is given a slap on the hand.
Until the powers-that-be understand this distinction and live it daily, there will never be any hope of reforming anything. And that’s the problem – how do you get the basically immoral, the greedy, the narcissistic, to follow a code of honor?
Mature adults in a position of leadership (especially on the national level) should already be aware of what needs to be done and should do it without supervision. We assume that their agenda is already in place. They use their campaigns to outline their beliefs prior to being elected.
What is needed is a mechanism to remove any politician from any office at any time when that official has demonstrated an unwillingness to implement the will of his or her constituents. This includes judges who legislate from the bench and refuse to follow the plain language of the Constitution.
Even more importantly, we need an electorate that is engaged and active in the political process to monitor those in office. As the author points out, the media has abdicated this duty. Fortunately, there are many online sites such as this one that will pick up the slack. I also do my duty to inform my readers about the goings-on in Washington. It’s a group effort, although somewhat decentralized. The Tea Party is a great example: united in purpose with clear goals, yet without a national leader.
As the country continues to deteriorate under this administration, things will (and already have) get bad enough that they will start to monitor their representative’s actions on their own with phone calls and emails. The positive effect of millions of informed, engaged voters will do far more good than any centralized organization.
Excellent answer.
Great idea, but…
Who would be in this organization?
Would they be PAID to spend there time doing this?
If so, by whom? How much?
The rest of us work real jobs for a living, (dual income households to meet the Tax Burden of the local schools) we dont have time to play
If “public support” falls below 75% and you re-shuffle managers, what happens when public support goes even lower AFTER the re-alignment?
Would be a whole lot easier if people would just realize that Public Unions + Politicians = Criminal Enterprise, and vote the bums out.
These ‘goals’ require in-action or something different from what you postulate:
‘Increasing GDP’, ‘Increasing average and median income’ and ‘Reducing unemployment’ are best accomplished by the government at all levels by creating a legal framework in which private property rights are protected, people get to work and start businesses without the approval of some government body, civil trials adjudicate disputes rather than act as judicial wealth redistributors and where that framework doesn’t significantly change over time. Not messing with the money is another, but that ought to be accomplished with some of your other points.
‘Increasing life expectancy’, ‘Reducing incidence of major diseases’ and ‘Decreasing cost of health care’ are not any business of the government and ought to be left to the doctors and other health professionals to work on. No government funding of research either as that corrupts the research – need an example? see AIDS research.
Education is entirely outside of the goverment’s area of competence, just as Health and increasing our economic well-being. The history of government involvement in education is a history of spending increasing sums of taxpayer money and accomplishing only corruption via special programs and building projects.
Reduce the Federal government to its proper Constitutional limits, recognize that state and local governments have no more inherent authority than does the federal and likewise reduce them as well, and you will achieve the last goal of Smaller Government. Since we have believed for a long time that state governments somehow possess “inherent” powers, there are few expressed limits on their powers, although many states have unintentionally accomplished the same thing with financial and fiscal restraints and – although only Texas remains in this group – by limiting the legislature’s session to once every two years. Local and State governments – including school boards and similar quasi-governmental bodies – are the training ground for those who want to run our lives via the Federal government. It does us no good to replace the Federal ‘boot on our necks’ with 50 State ‘boots’ and a multitude of Local ones. In fact, if you look around, you’ll see that most of the interference and corruption in government occurs at the State and Local levels; too much competition at the Federal level.
simple solution: reintroduce tar and feathering
How about:
No second term. Ever. Do your best once – hope your best isn’t prosecutable.
Prosecute the bad ones. Fair trial, quick hanging.
Hell, maybe hang ‘em if they run for office. Just pick a random citizen each time. In no way could it get worse than what we have.
Politicians – can’t live with ‘em, can’t hang ‘em – yet.
435 people cannot adequately represent the interests of 300 million citizens.
Likewise, senators elected in a popular election cannot adequately represent the interests of the individual states.
Our federal government will continue to be inefficient, corrupt, and dysfunctional until those two problems are addressed.
I believe various Tea Party groups have ‘adpot a politician’ programs. Citizens divvy up all the local, state or national pols among themselves and follow & record their activities for publication, comment and action.
“Upholding Judeo-Christian Culture”
Why in the world would you include this in this list? It’s in stark contrast to just about every other item on there, and that’s spoken as an active, practicing Lutheran.
Hear hear. It’s as startling as “Ensure Social Justice by reducing the income gap.” It just doesn’t belong. And moreover, in the end, it actually conflicts with the goals of constitutionalism and personal freedom.
If a nation is to have liberty, prosperity, justice, and virtue, it must first and foremost be free. Freedom must come first.
All of this is good stuff, but how about a simple mission statement that everybody can remember and repeat:
“Continually reduce the size of our out-of-control government”
Bible quizzes for political candidates? Why do I care what religion a politician is if he cuts the budget, uses the military and national security apparatus effectively, and however strongly he may feel about his code of personal beliefs understands that it is not the role of government to force those beliefs onto others?
Also, your apparent embrace of the Constitution is in direct contradiction with your apparent belief in Christian theocracy. To wit:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion …”
If you’re going to advocate for the Constitution perhaps you should read it first. Or is your “solution” to the contradiction a Constitutional amendment?
Any system you devise will be gamed. These people aren’t stupid. In fact, they are usually very smart, but narcissistic.
Example: The Constitution… it only took them 100 years to completely trash it.
The only true control over them is an ironclad Constitutional amendment that limits their fuel – money. A very low flat tax that made everybody feel the pain equal to the pleasure politicians give certain groups would control them better than an elaborate and very game-able system.
There is one other control that they haven’t been able to overcome. I maintain it is the most important thing the founders did, even though they might not have viewed it as such.
The second amendment.
Theoretically workable. Even with the counter-push from the left these ideas would work IF the politician had a way to count the votes coming from each side. But that’s just raw politics and has to be dealt with no matter the technique to get policies we like put into law. One lament this idea highlights is that we have already specified the major policy goals when we adopted the Constitution. I lament the raw implication that this idea further institutionalizes democracy over republicanism and men as rulers rather than the rule of law. We are furthering another vice in my opinion and that is pragmatism over principle; even though in this case I like the objective.
I’d suggest shackles. Heavy ones. Unbreakable. Welded in place, no lock. And keep ‘em away from cutting torches.
Trying to “manage” people who have a free rein to legally use force against the innocent is foolishness. A while ago a group of people realized this and built a government based on the idea that those legally armed people should only use legalized force for specific purposes, and wrote a list of what they would be allowed to do. Thus was born the richest and freest country in the history of mankind.
We do not live in that country anymore. That list has, at times by stealth, at timed self righeously, at times by shameless effrontery, been expanded to include pretty much every aspect of life – from the medicine we are allowed to take to the size of our toilets.
There is no way to prevent misuse of government powers other than removing those powers it does not need to perform it’s only legitimate purpose: defend each american’s righ to life, freedom and the fruits of his work.
We don’t have a managmenet problem, we have a hiring problem. We’re hiring the wrong people for the job. Your solutions won’t work with the sort of people who are getting elected today, and aren’t needed for the sort of people that can actually acomplish the goals you set out.
“What gets measured gets done.” Ok. How about ‘What gets measured gets controlled’? We have out of control federal spending. Tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds goes to inmates at prisons but that’s just another rounding error. Food stamps? When Texas went to the Lone Star debit card instead of paper food stamps in order to address some fraud issues, almost 250,000 families fell off the rolls in months. A fairly large city was scamming the program but government rarely tries to measure it. If you’re a wage slave you get your W-2, a contractor gets his 1099-MISC (even from government offices!) but where does government report the income they christen ‘income, redistributed’? It is past time that there be a 1099-GOV for all the handouts. Measurement=control.
Politics is all about power and nothing about public service. Any plan has to be sold first to its executors, so politicians would have to be convinced that they are public servants first. In a free country, the electorate must do the convincing and we continue to vote for powerful politicians who make the biggest splash with the sound bite media herd. In summation, “If a frog had wings he wouldn’t have any scabs on his ass.”
A: “Upholding the Constitution” Per Founders’ intent rather than as a “living document” is is Begging the Question I.E., interpretation is the essence of implimentation.
B: Upholding Personal Freedom by Reducing taxes and Reducing legal regulations and restrictions
certainly I could see how you would identify Law and Order as interfering with the Criminals freedom, but I would remind you that if you don’t like the taxes of our country you are free to leave for Japan or Greenland, Bye..
C:Upholding Judeo-Christian Culture
Supporting appreciation of the Judeo-Christian Bible
Yes, our tax money should go to promoting Catholisism, I have said so all along, that was the founders Primary intent for establishing a more perfect union
Perhaps we could start by returning to pre Lutheran times and have the government sell indulgences
also I think the scarlet letter would be a cool deal instead of abortion, voting, and employment
Wow. Just wow.
You list one objective after another that is a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and then you have the audacity to list upholding that same Constitution as another objective.
HINT: READ THE TENTH AMENDMENT!
Sorry, but your ideas are not goals. “Reducing taxes”? How about a goal, like “Combined Federal taxes shall not exceed 15% of income”, with specific definitions of ‘income’ as well?
Reduce the size of government? How about “The total number of persons employed directly or indirectly by the federal government, or any federally charted corporation (to cover the post office), or any agency of the government shall not exceed 0.33% of the last decienial census, except in time of declared war, when the Department of Defense may exceed this limit”.
Without hard numbers, goals are just talking points and the pols know how to lie about them.
How about making an amendment to the constitution that says “Government shall not participate in any form of commerce to even the slightest degree. Nor shall it in any way show preference to any private group in any industry through regulation, funding, tax preference or any other means.”
That would get rid of a lot of agencies and save a TON of money.
Part of what’s going on is “be careful what you wish for, you might get it”. Pension weenies have been arguing that we need to fully fund them for awhile, but now that people are paying attention, the answer is to get rid of defined-benefit pensions instead of bankrupting the state funding them.
So, the only way to make people quit paying attention and abolish pensions is to write “nothing to see here, all is well, move along” articles like Lehrer’s.
What you’re describing is yet another conservative watchdog organization, armed with a familiar manifesto, issuing public report cards. We’re already struggling to get the GOP to toe your lines, and I’m afraid you lost even me at promoting politically sponsored Bible studies.
You need a lot more than Republicans, let alone conservatives, on board, if you’re seriously interested in managing politicians, because partisan contracts come with short expiration dates. It’s depressing to watch the broad based Tea Party movement devolve into the same old schismatic conservative vs. RINO political divide. We’ve been down this road before, and seem to have learned all the wrong lessons.
The fundamental problem is that elections are demonstrably insufficient to the task of holding politicians to account on a continuing basis. In order to manage our officials effectively in between, however, we’re going to need an agenda that can engage the will of all of the people, not just “we the conservative people.”
I suggest walking the political cat back to clarity and early intervention. For example:
* Attach sunshine and sunset provisions to the measurable goals you call for.
* Commit serious time and resources to rehabilitating both legal and tax codes.
* Glorify oversight, not legislation.
* Demand that Congress cease defaulting to Executive Branch bureaucrats who now fill in all the legislative blanks our elected representatives can’t be bothered to write into the bills they pass.
* Sell genuine regulatory reform, by telling folks just how many “crimes” they could be inadvertently committing everyday.
* Inculcate accountability in our political class in the local venues where their careers are born, before they get to Washington, by paying attention!
* Make state politics as sexy as national politics, by pushing for media focus on outside the beltway stories and diverse initiatives which could scale up instead of being handed down.
* Reward reporters, not pundits.
* Put an end to legislators’ explicit and de facto exemptions from the law (now being extended to states and favored organizations!).
These are the kind of stratagems which can command almost universal support, regardless of political affiliations. Without an active consensus which crosses party lines, no substantive initiatives can be sustained from one Congress or Administration to the next. Continuity is the sine qua non of managing politicians — of every stripe — who will always prefer making sausage behind closed doors.
What we may most sorely need for that long hard slog, alas, is charismatic, non-partisan, motivational leadership from those who are not electioneering for themselves or others.
No offense, but you sound like a gazelle demanding the lion stop eating its young. You have made no new suggestions, nor any incentives for an elected official to follow them, but every incentive to promise to do so with the sole intention of letting you down.
More regulation. Really. Those you wish to regulate will be hiring the regulators. Such an endeavor will only succeed in making the problem bigger.
It would be more effective to simply ignore this government and start a grass roots set of institutions at the local level, such as civil courts and banks, that operate outside of this behemoth with their own currency that is untaxable by the current totalitarian monstrosity.
I’m sure I’m the only person in the country that would consider that an option, but there you go.
I’m not sure why you would interpret “regulatory reform” as a call for “more regulation,” particularly in the context of my suggestions as a whole.
“It would be more effective to simply ignore this government and start a grass roots set of institutions at the local level, such as civil courts and banks…..with their own currency…..”
And you think I’m the one who is being unrealistic?
Terrible article.
1. The purpose of these people is completely misstated. We are tax cattle and they are our masters. Elected officials have only one obligation they cannot avoid – keep the tax money coming in through either direct taxes, inflation or borrowing.
2. We do not have any means of control over those we elect. They have the guns (through police), they have our tax dollars to spend against us, and they have scores of staffers at their disposal to counter anything we might come up with to control them.
3. The only thing that will get them to stop whipping we tax cattle so much is if we stop producing tax revenue; but this is virtually impossible for us to. If we attempt such a feat, they will threaten us with removing societal protections (police/fire protection), removing necessary services they’ve procured the sole rights thereof for themselves (water, sewage, mail, etc); and if that fails to scare us into behaving – they will simply come to our homes to arrest us and confiscate whatever they want (the IRS has the power of arrest).
How do you keep from being forced into a protection racket when the police and your elected officials are the ones forcing you into it? Different elected officials won’t solve that problem. Neither will more laws or more officials.
The only thing I can think of is to turn out my pockets and say, “I’m broke! Sorry, I can’t pay.” With the rest of you hoping Jesus materializes and miracles us some decent leaders rather than following suit, I’m afraid such a gesture is purely useless on my part.
@OCapitalista:
Well said.
@Conservative Anarchists such as MrTouchdown:
Get real.
On the one hand it is true the New Black Panthers engage in voter intimidation in the Democrats’ favor and Democrats return the favor by covering for them and refusing to prosecute. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg — Chicago is famous for turning death certificates into voter ID’s.
On the other hand if people are truly ready to cut spending and pay their own way they can vote for fiscal responsibility any time they wish, and all the vote fraud in all the Democratically-controlled precincts in all the nation couldn’t hold us back.
We do need government and we do have politicians responsive to people who vote. If you’re tired of nanny-state politicians telling you to eat your Brussels sprouts while they gorge on deep-dish pizza then do something about it, and by “something” I don’t mean grow your own crops and make your own pizza.
Mr. Rubenfeld is onto something, he’s just fallen victim to over-reach. His criteria are confused and unfocused because they are excessive in number and needlessly divisive. It’s ironically sort of like the problem with Big Government.
Let’s slash those criteria to one: control spending. If you build smaller government good government will come. If we hold politicians accountable to their spending, and that’s easy to do because there are already organizations such as Citizens Against Government Waste and CATO who have been fighting this crap for decades, if we hold them to account for excess spending the non-government economy will prosper and we will have the freedom to build a better nation.
If that means Bible school and Christian charity for Vik Rubenfeld, paid for with money saved from tax cuts, he gets what he wants without using government coercion to get it, and instead of freaking people out with scary talk of theocracy he sets a good example for what it means to be a Christian.
It would work the same for proponents of green energy or light rail. Turn a profit purely on the strength of your own vision measured by voluntary paying customers and the whole world will hail your genius instead of half of them — the smart half — calling you out as a corporate welfare parasite.
Freedom is funny that way … “transformative” is the word.