When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humanity is created equal, that all living persons are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among the people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter it, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
When a long train of abuses and usurpations evinces a design to reduce them under a perversion of power, it is their right, it is their duty to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient and growing sufferance of these American people for at least 40 years; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to require change. The recent history of the United States, its Congress, its presidencies, is one of repeated injuries and usurpations, all owing to special interests and other lobbies that have perverted individual and especially middle-class opportunity, dashed hopes for a renewed economy and set aside the promise that each succeeding generation will improve upon the last.
We, therefore, We the People of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled not in one place but existing as free humanity in every state of the great union, do solemnly publish and declare, that we are, and of right ought to be free and independent of all Special Interest, that such lobbies have no right to demand slavery from us, to be beholden to their thirst for greed, to give up our liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to forego any reasonable and secure future for our young, to abandon the glue of the nation, that is, its middle class.
We therefore declare that from this date forth, We the People are absolved from special-interest allegiance in favor of publicly funded election of all in Congress and the president him(her)self, with no special-interest money allowed as influence of any sort.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our sacred honor.
(With apologies to the Founders.)
And if you want to say something about this issue, why don't you do just that - say something that might effect change instead of trying to write something that is cute but which is, in my opinion, lame.
1. Money has always had a role in politics. This is inevitable: anyone and everyone has the right to speak their opinions freely and, for good or ill, it generally costs money to get your voice heard. However, increasingly we find corporations and other corporate entities growing to dimensions “the Founders” could never have foreseen. Some commercial corporate interests are now international in breadth and have resources that beggar the GDPs of many countries. Their bankrolls give lobbyists a voice that easily drowns out yours and mine. Yet—frighteningly, in my perspective—the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has frighteningly endorsed this development. I believe this is the real issue to which Art Gunther points. However… 2. What is a “Special Interest?” Civil servants? Teachers? Home owners? Social Security recipients? Small business owners? Gun owners? People who don’t own guns? People who love people of the same sex? Or the opposite sex? Evangelicals? Muslims? Jews? Etc., etc. Everyone has a “special” interest in the direction government takes. But the “Special Interest” label is a canard which dehumanizes those who don’t share MY “special interest,” and thereby dehumanizes the speaker as well.
JS
Yes, not all special interests -- lobbies -- are on the take, and those voices can be heard as to their needs -- perhaps the public need -- through public hearings on their proposals. But I do not think any lobby should fund a candidate or give him (her) a job after the person leaves government. The ordinary Joe and Sue can no longer be heard. It is time for a cabinet-level "Secretary of the People," held by a common person who has the president's ear. It is time to "effect change," as Brenda puts it, by publicly neutering special-interest power. This can be accomplished by banning their money from campaigns and from influencing the post-service careers of those elected.
My comment is directed toward the lobby system in Washington that has become perverted to the extent that ordinary voices cannot be heard. National elections, whether for president or Congress, are supposedly built around issues, but behind the curtain, special interests are pulling strings on talking heads. You mention local politics, such as in Clarkstown. I am not informed about them, but if ordinary voice is drowned out there, too, then the same remedy applies: a national ban on special-interest campaign financing in favor of public money so that the playing field is leveled and so that "favors" are not owed, nationally or local. That is my concrete suggestion.