Politics, News & Issues >
US Leaders (Other)
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedDo US Congressmen behave like public servants or privileged royalty?
Results so far:
| Royalty | 90% | 143 votes | Total: 159 votes | |
| Servants | 10% | 16 votes |
Royalty
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesWith the exceptions of a rare few, (Hon. Louie Gohmert, Hon. Steve King, and a few others), our United States Congressmen have forgotten they are public servants who are employed by the American people that voted them into office, and not lords governing over the people. Congressmen need to remember that the seats of congress are not inherited through a bloodline, the people voted and appointed who gets the privilege of retaining a seat in congress and nothing more.
We are to honor the title of a congressman, and in return congressmen are to respect the people they are serving, and not treat them like stewards to loot. Yet over the last decade, congressmen have exalted themselves as a prestige royalty that has stopped doing the job they were voted into office to do. But instead act as though they are waiting for the Queen to cross the pond to come and teach them how to do a royal wave properly.
Sadly it doesn't stop with just congressmen. When the new First Lady of the United States visited the Queen she was instructed many times of what was allowed and not allowed when approaching the Queen. But the First Lady walks right up to the Queen and gives her a hug, in a true royal bloodline, that is a big No! No!
The First Lady saw herself as an equal to the Queen. But sadly that's not how it works in America, because royal bloodlines do not sit in the Whitehouse, the people vote. As with our new president moving family members into the Whitehouse as though trying to set up some sort of monarchy.
These acts alone reveal public officals have distorted their place by thinking they are royalty. And it shows disrespect to the American people and its country's foundation for a free nation.
Under Article 1 of The Legislative Branch of the Constitution in section 8, the powers of congress are the following in lay-mens terms: (1 ) the power to lay and collect taxes, (2) borrow money, (3) regulate trade, (4) regulate immigration, (5) control the nation's currency, (6) set standards measurements, (7) provide for postal services, (8) issue copyrights and patents, (9) establish federal courts, (10) declare war. (Well ,1 out of 10 isn't bad, thanks congress for the Franks Sinatra stamp).
Under section 9 of the constitution are the powers denied to Congress as listed: (1) The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless in Rebellion or Invasion. (2) A bill of attainder permits the punishment of a person without a trail. An ex post facto law is retroactive, making an act illegal after it has already been committed. (3) Congress cannot order any direct tax unless it is proportional to state population. (4) No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law. (5) No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or Trust under them, shall, without the consent of the congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, prince, or foreign State.
If our leaders don't start thinking with the lump three feet above their rear-ends, this nation will collapse.
.
Learn more about this author, Suzanna Billingsley Frost.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Servants
A little of both.
Congress has members that reflect many different political viewpoints. Some, particularly new members, behave as though they take their responsibilities to their constituents very seriously. Both my senators, and my representative, answer my letters thoughtfully and with apparent sincerity.
Others, particularly those who've been Senators or Representatives for several decades, seem to act as though they've decided they are bulletproof and smarter than the public.
A recent example is the public outcry against the proposed immigration reform bill which failed 2 attempts at passage, thanks to overwhelming grassroots opposition. Yet, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, hoping the bill would pass, commented to the effect that Congress would ignore the public's opposition and pass the bill anyway. Fortunately for America, he was wrong.
Yet, I am encouraged. Last month, Senator Feinstein of California chaired a bi-partisan hearing in which U. S. Attorney Johnny Sutton was questioned about the prosecution and subsequent incarceration of former Border Patrol agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos. I was both shocked and gratified to learn that Senator Feinstein, a liberal Democrat, was actually taking the part of the two imprisoned agents, who had received woefully long prison sentences for trying to apprehend an illegal alien drug smuggler.
Make no mistake: All members of Congress clearly enjoy their perks; they will continue to vote themselves pay raises in the dead of night when virtually all of their constituents are asleep; they will not move to enact term limits or scale back their obscenely lucrative pension scheme; they will not stop in trying to furtively enact dubious legislation, such as the National ID card, when they believe no one is looking.
Many members of Congress behave as though they understand their role as public servants. There is, as always, room for improvement. I believe that if the People were able to get Congress to pass term limits, or a service age limit, and cut back their pensions, we would see more members of Congress behaving as public servants, and fewer behaving as privileged royalty.
Learn more about this author, Chris Messner.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
- US Leaders (Other)
- Is lifelong Secret Service protection for former Presidents fiscally sound?
- Does giving effective speeches make an effective president?
- Should President Obama have gone to Denmark to lobby for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago?
- Should former US presidents speak out against a current president?
- Should President Obama be impeached?
- Should we judge presidents by their words or by their deeds?
