THE FISHER PARADIGM©™ and UNITED STATES CONGRESS – A READER COMMENTS!

THE FISHER PARADIGM©™ and UNITED STATES CONGRESS – A READER COMMENTS!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© January 12, 2010

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A READER WRITES:

You have hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Our political system works no better than our health care system. The "two party" system is just the party not in power against everything the party in power is for. This has been going on for decades and I, for one, am sick of it.

Perhaps we should throw out the party system and vote for people who "say" they are for particular ideas and ideals (although we will never know if they really believe what they say unless it is backed up by former votes).

Let people vote for whomever they wish in the "primaries" and let that be a way to winnow the candidates to 2 people to choose from with no party affiliation whatsoever. Yes, we are all bound by our regional upbringing and prejudices, but it is past time to look beyond what we are comfortable with and to what we truly needed to occur in our nation.

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

Thank you for your comment. The problem I see with your suggestion is that we would invite further chaos, not less. As dysfunctional as you see Congress, it is still “our Congress!”

We, as voters, have put the 535 members of Congress into office. Do we really want to invite the chaos that is in French and Italian politics? I don’t think so.

The system is not the problem.

The problem is the general apathy of the eligible voting public.

When it is considered a good turnout when 50 percent of registered voters actually do vote, then we are likely to get the Congress we deserve.

I’ve spoken to people, some of them the most vociferous critics of past and present administrations, and I’ve asked an obvious question: “When was the last time you voted?” We “assume” critics are the first in line to vote. Not so.

Most recently I had a conversation with a person who is disgusted with the Obama Administration. I asked him that question. He replied proudly, “I’m not registered to vote. I’ve never voted.” Then seeing my disappointment, he added, “It doesn’t make any difference anyway, you still get the same bums elected to office.”

This nonvoter is now forty-seven. He doesn’t know it but he just opened the gates of totalitarianism a little wider for us all to slip through to a new kind of hell, make no mistake about it.

The onus is not on Congress, alone, but all of us who put Congressmen and Congresswomen into office. It is time we own up to that fact and do somethin about it.

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