Sunday, March 15, 2009

Has Our Political System Run Its Course?

The time may have come for Americans to think about a new Constitutional Convention. Why? The population of the United States in 1776 was about 2.5 million people. At the end of 2007 the United States prison population was almost exactly the same number. Think about that. About 2.5 million Americans were in prison at the end of 2007. The United States is fast approaching the 300 million population mark, one exceeded only by China and India. When our Constitution was written it was done so for a relatively small amount of people in a small geographic area. In other words, it was a controllable population in a confined location. Today you would be able to drive from the northern most point to the southern most point in perhaps 24 hours. But, to me the problem is that we have grown far too large for the type of government designed by the Founding Fathers. Such a huge population in the third largest land mass on Earth spells trouble. And trouble we have. Crime is out of control. We don't adequately educate a large percentage of our children. There is no health plan protection for many Americans. New Orleans is still a mess. We are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. And worst of all is Washington. Or actually it's our political system in general. Perhaps the freedoms granted us no longer apply. Maybe there are too many people to handle so much freedom. Let's face it, we are no longer a working Republic. In a Republic the people vote for a representative who theoretically has their best interests in mind. But how can this be when most Americans probably have no idea who represents them either locally or nationally. James Madison once lost an election in Virginia because he refused to hand out liquor to voters, he felt he would no longer have the where with all to vote for what he believed was best for ALL the people. Today in Washington they hand out billions of dollars to their buddies who run the banks, the same people who plundered the system to begin with.

So, since the system may have run its course, what we need is change. Where have we heard that before? From the same clowns who now run the show. Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss. We are too large for a political system based on a world view 230 years old. It's time for a modern Constitution, or at least some change in the way we do things. Real change, not Obama-change (which is really no change at all). We are a one party political system run by a two headed monster.

WHO IS WITH ME?