Big Dogs Weblog

Holding Political Office is About Power, Not Service

by Big Dog on Jan 23, 2007 at 10:24 Political

How efficient would a company regard a CEO that spent millions of dollars in order to see a $400,000 payoff? Right now the Democratic field of contenders for the nomination to the Presidency has a group of people who will do just that and Republicans will not be far behind. The President of the United States earns $400,000 a year so in a four year term the President receives 1.6 million dollars. In order to get to that job the Presidential candidate will need to spend about 400 times that amount of money. In other words, the person installed as the next CEO of the country will spend about 500 million dollars in order to earn 1.6 million.

Most of the people who run for office either have a great deal of money or they know people who have a great deal and are willing to part with it. The latter is usually the case rather than the former because, with very few exceptions, candidates get a lot of money from people in order to win an election. Those donations are not free and they often involve a quid pro quos once the candidate has been bought and paid for and is safely in office. People who donate money, especially large sums of money, expect something in return for their investment. Whether it is an appointment to a government position for themselves or family members or support for legislation favorable to them, backers expect a return on their money.

While many of the candidates for office do not have the money to finance their own campaigns, they are exceptionally wealthy and make a great deal more than the annual salary of any elected official. Hillary Clinton earns more than 400 thousand dollars a year even without her Senate pay. Her husband routinely receives that amount for one speaking engagement and therein lies the catch. Prior to becoming President, very few people knew who Bill Clinton was. He was elected to office and bumbled through eight years earning an annual salary more than he had ever earned in his life. His service however, put him in high demand and offers that he would never have received had he never been elected President, began to pour in. Book deals, speaking engagements, honoraria, all items that are the spoils of service to this country.

The money that elected office pays is not what attracts these people, it is the power. Hillary does not care about 400 thousand a year; she cares about being the most powerful person in the world. She is looking forward to the spoils similar to what her husband has received as a result of his service but not until she has had a chance to have her name placed in the history books as the first woman President of the United States, not until she has had the chance to rule over the masses, not until she has had her bite of the apple of power.

Hillary is not unique in this regard. Obama, Richardson and the rest can all claim that they see America needs to go in a different direction or that they can change the world but the fact is these are the same things they all say every four years and very little changes. Government gets larger and its appetite for our hard earned money becomes ever more insatiable. More and more social programs are introduced and more legislation is introduced to choke off the productivity of this great nation. In all this, one thing remains a constant and that is the people who are doing it are exercising power over others and that is what they want more than anything. They do not care about this country or the direction in which it heads so long as they are the ones doing the directing. People who allow polls to determine their positions are neither principled or leaders. They are appeasers who will do anything for the financial support offered by the wealthy regardless of how that position affects the country. Hillary, for example, changes her positions (though many of her supporters will deny this) in order to be more appealing (as a candidate, the other could never happen). Look at her early positions on government and compare them to now. Her recently discovered support of the military runs contrary to her words and actions while she was in college and when she was First Lady but she knows the appearance of support is essential to improving her chances for greater power.

As previously stated, these people, in their quest for power, will spend millions of dollars of other people’s money in order to get into positions where they can spend billions of dollars of other people’s money. They seek power in order to increase their personal wealth and to foster an environment where they will be in demand after leaving office. Earning millions of dollars for speaking is another demonstration of power and a position they desire greatly. When someone pays a former elected official huge sums of money to speak it reaffirms, in their minds, the power they have to command such a thing.

The founders of this great nation never intended for the people to be ruled by the government, they intended for the people to rule the country through representation. If they had wanted us ruled they would have kept the monarchy. Instead, they pointed out that our Creator has given each of us the right to live as a free people, unencumbered by subservience to others. They certainly envisioned that there would be people who sought office solely for the power involved and they attempted to keep that from happening by setting up three branches of government that would oversee each other. Unfortunately, these three branches have become coconspirators in the fleecing of the populace. The idea the founders had of citizens serving in elected office was that they would serve the country for a short period and return to their regular lives. The founders never intended for public service to become a lifetime job. Back then serving was not lucrative and people left to return to their lives. Elected officials do not earn a great deal of money (though more than they are worth); it is the other money, the power, and the opportunity to become part of the elitist class that they are in search of and constantly strive to protect.

[tags]president, election, money, campaign, Hillary, government, contribution[/tags]

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