Our government is a representative republic. It’s not democratic, most people fail to distinguish between the two. In a democracy, everyone gets one vote. In the United States, we do get one vote, but we vote for Senators and Representatives, and the people we elect then are free to vote however they please on whatever proposals come before congress to be enacted.
Here in this part of Colorado, I have the burden of being represented by someone I did not vote for, and who doesn’t even come close to representing anything that I believe.
Mike Coffman has recently been in the news for his statements that President Obama was not an American. He has apologized for that statement and backed away from it, but can you really “unsay” something like that? How does something like that slip out of your mouth if you don’t really believe it at some level in your heart?
Then there is his support of the recently failed Colorado constitutional amendment granting personhood to a zygote. In case biology isn’t your strong suit, a zygote is the cell that is formed when an egg and a sperm first meet up. The zygote then begins to divide into more cells, and at some point, usually months down the road, that cell eventually may become a person. But, for at least the first few weeks, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between a zygote and your fingernail clippings.
And, as Jason Salzman over at bigmedia.org says, how can you overlook the fact that Mr. Coffman calls social security a ponzi scheme and supported Rick Perry in his recent bid for the republican nomination? Considering that Coffman replaced Tom Tancredo, I suppose you could say he’s “moderate”, but only as in comparing your backyard barbecue to a volcano.
I can see myself supporting many portions of the current republican platform, especially some of their points on fiscal responsibility. However, you simply cannot abandon many of the social programs that have made this country so great since the 1930’s.
True, there is waste, and we should go after it. Why do our senators and congressmen get benefits the rest of us can only dream about? Why can’t they settle for just average, like the rest of us do? That’s a start at going after waste of government funding. It isn’t much, but I bet we could start there.
Seriously though, there is waste in every department of the government, and we should go after it in a logical, forthright, unbiased manner. It’s probably near impossible to find a group of people who could review this waste without any political bias, but that is what would be fair.
We need to begin electing people who are not so darn partisan that they can’t look at the laws being passed and come to a reasonable compromise smack in the middle that makes most people happy. That means that somehow we have to begin to make these people sit down and talk to one another.
While I realize that you cannot fully exclude your religious beliefs from your thinking process, we do need to realize that in our country, freedom of religion also means freedom *from* religion and that a vast majority of Americans just don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. Imposing biblical imperatives on American law is no different from the Sharia laws common in Muslim countries.
So, Mr. Coffman, lighten up. You were elected to represent everyone in your district, not just the ones who are bat-shit crazy right-wing extremists.