I Am Reclaiming My Representative

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Over the past several decades, our elected representatives have transformed into what they should never be known as; “lawmakers.” Whether a person is serving on their local city council, state assemblies, legislators, or the United States Congress, our elected officials were not sent to their office to enact a seemingly endless torrent of law. They were sent to represent the voiceless, the citizens who trusted them with their votes to make their lives easier. Now it is the norm to refer to these men and women as “lawmakers,” people to be feared and worshipped, rather than respected and admired. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule, however, far too often we see our elected officials act more as people that we pay to do a job we expect them to perform all the time, but we see them do it a fraction of the time.

Our elected officials have grown into some of the wealthiest and most powerful officials we have ever seen. Their ability to utilize their office to celebritize themselves by constantly going on all the network news shows, podcasts, and speaking circuits, ever-growing their popularity and/or notoriety. They spend most of their time wining and dining with their lobbyist friends, or their loyal donors, ensuring a steady flow of cash for their campaign coffers. It is said that the average member of Congress, spends the first year of their term fundraising for re-election and the second year actively campaigning for re-election. In between events, they’re on the House floor voting, or giving speeches, some valuable and worth the time, and others just showing the nation your face and voice for future recognition.

This happens on the state and federal levels mostly, but local elections and offices are not immune from it. It is also a largely bipartisan issue, with both Democrats and Republicans doing it. How many times do we report, and/or show, members of Congress from both parties somehow massively expanding their personal wealth after entering office? How many times do we see stories of insider trading by elected officials, and how many times do half-hearted attempts at stopping it always fall short?

Our elected leaders, if you can even call them that, spend most of their time that is not spent getting richer or campaigning, actively proposing or supporting proposed laws. But you will never see them repeal a law; I mean the Republican Party couldn’t even repeal Obamacare when they had the chance. Every year, or legislative session, hundreds, if not thousands of new laws get proposed and/or signed into law. For example, every year the California penal code Book, the vehicle code, the business code, and other code books, get longer and bigger. Laws may get amended but never repealed. For example, in Maryland, according to section 3-322, sections (a) one through three, you cannot perform oral sex on another person or ANIMAL.

We have an elected representative problem here in this country, and it is a problem of our own making. When our great republic was founded in 1776, our elected officials were men to be respected, but more importantly, men to be held to account. Congress and the Senate were initially a part-time job, and that technically is still the case, with the Constitution requiring Congress to meet only once each year. But we tend to see our elected representatives in Washington, at least half of the time that Congress is in session. From 1789 to 1816, congressmen and senators were paid on a per diem basis, meaning they were paid for every day they were present. In March of 1816, a law was passed allowing members of the House of Representatives to be paid on a per annum, or yearly basis, with their salaries growing to where they currently stand today, at $174,000 annually for senators and representatives. In our early years, when our representatives failed us or became corrupted, they were physically removed from office. Some were tarred and feathered, others were bludgeoned or otherwise assaulted, and the point was understood: You work for us, not yourself or your bank account and if you so much as cross us, you will suffer the consequences.

Was that uncivilized? Maybe it was, but it was overwhelmingly effective at keeping our representatives in check. Now I am not advocating for those days to return (ok, maybe a little bit), but I am calling for us to take back control of our elected leaders. How do we do that you ask? We start paying them what they are worth, and I can honestly say, they are not worth their current price tag. I propose that elected leaders that serve in their respective state assemblies or legislatures be paid their state’s minimum wage, and all members of Congress be paid the federal minimum wage. There is no reason whatsoever for any member of a representative body such as a state legislature or the United States Senate to be paid anything over what the average citizen makes. There is nothing special or high and mighty about serving in Congress. Unfortunately, we made them that way by abdicating so much of our power to them. They have become monsters of our own making and they need to be checked back into reality.

In Congress, they are legally allowed to set their own salary, they just need to take up a vote for it. No other profession can do that — we can bargain and negotiate our pay for most of the professions out there, but only a business owner can set their own salary, but that money is coming out of their own business. Congress takes their pay directly from the Federal Treasury — it’s not their money; it’s our tax money. We need to stop sending people to represent us at the state and federal level to enrich themselves and secure book and speaking fees at our expense.

And for the love of God, can we normalize calling our elected officials “representatives” and not “lawmakers?” We did not send these men and women to their respective offices to propose a flurry of laws and regulations. We sent them up there to make our lives easier and to ensure the government wasn’t getting too big and or powerful for its britches, and boy did we sure mess that up over the years.

It isn’t too late for us to fix that, but it takes the whole village to put their elected officials on notice. Stop electing people who are just going to turn their backs on you, stop idolizing these people and for the love of all things holy, stop celebritizing them. The more we see them on television or our phones, giving paid speeches or paid appearances on the plethora of networks willing to pay them, the less we see them actually work for us. If they want to go on television or give paid speeches, then they need to take a pay cut. What other occupation, other than being a celebrity allows for employees to collect other salaries while working for and getting paid by their company?

Time to rebrand and reclaim our elected leaders, and make them truly work for us.