Techtonics

The art of group leadership is tricky to master. There is always one person who wants to pursue their own agenda. While this may be a good thing in certain situations, it is almost always a distraction to the other members of a group, and it more often than not slows any progress to a crawl.

This can be exemplified in our government. We elect individuals to positions of great importance in hopes that they will carry out our wishes and speak for us. The unfortunate point that invariably comes about is the elected officials tend to go about their own way in the name of their constituents. If their actions were truly the desire of their constituents congress would not have an abysmal approval rating.

It is understandable that any approval rating will not be 100%, but something above a majority would lend more confidence to the system. The current approval rating not only hints at congress's failure to uphold the value of the American people, but it screams it from the tallest peak. The question begging to be asked is why are they still in office? Why do we still gladly suffer these fools?

The simple answer is that the American people do not believe they can make a difference with their vote. They believe that one little vote will not change the course of history. Yet we are thirsty for change and we desire, as expressed in the low approval rating, a new crop of people to alter our future. There in lies the crux. We want a change but we don't enact it. Are we afraid of revolution? Do we fear reprisal from our elected officials?

No, it is not us who should fear them, but they who should fear us. We, the American people, have all the power. We elect them, we tell them what we want, we demand their compliance. The fact that they do not follow our instructions is grounds for termination. We have given them ample opportunities to change their tune and improve our country yet they have continued to bicker and fight like children.

The fact that they continue to argue over the most minute detail should tell us that they are not willing to change, and a compromise that would lead us into a desirable future is not even on the horizon. This squabbling and mud slinging show a group of individuals who care more about their paychecks than their country. They care enough to increase their pay and benefits while the military looses theirs. They care enough to line their own pockets while the average American is scrimping and saving. If the justification for their pay increase is the work they do then my six year old should earn their pay, she can squabble and bicker about petty things just as well as they can. The difference is that my children will eventually reach a compromise

 No government official should wield the power to increase their pay, that power should come only from the people they represent. We, the people, have more power than we realize. We are slowly wiping the sleep from our eyes and we don't like what we see. We, the sleeping giant, will find a new group of people to lead us, a group that will better represent the hard work and resiliency the American people are forged from.

Then, when the dust settles, and the newly elected officials are left to their own devices, and we go back to sleep, the corruption and fighting will continue. Without diligent management from those who place them in power, every elected official will slide into the darkness of corruption. The only thing that dictates the rate of this slide is the moral fibers of those within the system.