I wish I was sharing a “positive” example of servant leadership today – but we can also learn from those who exhibit absolutely no servanthood whatsoever. To be specific, let’s look at the worst case of leadership on the planet – that monstrosity we call the U.S. Congress. With their latest public approval rating of 14%, they officially became the lowest-rated congress in history. What’s interesting is that, at 14%, it’s evident that every political segment of the voting population (republicans, democrats, independents, illegals, foreign terrorists in our military, even dead voters from Chicago) believes that our congress has reached an all-time low. It’s not just the conservatives’ view.
But they have reached all-time HIGHS in several areas: arrogance, personal wealth, wasteful spending, tax evasion, ignoring the people they’re supposed to be serving, really bad hair, etc. If you got a 14% rating at your next performance review, would your employer keep you around?
Many remedies come to mind: perhaps first and foremost the option of voting ALL of them out of office. This has a lot of merit, with very few negatives. 86% of voters seem to agree that this congress would be better off doing NOTHING – vs. what they’re doing now. I’m willing to sacrifice the 4-5 good congresspeople for the good of the whole.
Of course cutting their pay and work hours would help. How about we go to a part-time legislature, as a few states do? They can work for 4 months only – so we can cut their pay and benefits by 66%. That OK with you? They’ll do a lot less harm this way. Isn’t it interesting that our nation’s first congressmen were part-timers; they were “citizen congressmen” – who went back to their farms and stores when their term was up. They didn’t view it as a profession – they viewed it as their patriotic duty. The idea of leaching off the public for decades was something foreign to them.
Don’t forget: we employ these people. They’re supposed to be working for us. Never have so many got paid so much for doing so much – harm.
Approval ratings are merely opinions rendered by individuals who typically are too rushed to offer a valid reason for their position due to the “snap answers” provided by most of us – depending upon the depth of the survey. As a country, we are most obviously in desperate need of ACCOUNTABILITY from our political leaders at the local, regional and national level(s). There certainly was a time when (back in the good olde’ days) “citizen congressmen” were up to the challenges of the era. Not so anymore with all the complex issues facing our country as well as the multitude of concerns with other nations globally. The cliche`”think globally, act locally” is well put, however to get through to the ‘policy wonks’ in DC is a challenging endeavor. A close friend of mine did his policy science internship for Guy Vanderjagt some years ago in DC and was told when he was finished “What you see and what you hear, when you leave, leave it here”. Full Blown Transparency is key to letting our “Policy Makers” understand that WE ARE MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!! I have attached a snippet I extracted from a comment board on MSN. It hits on some very disturbing points that are rather troubling to me…..These may press some of your buttons as well!
IS ANYONE IN WASHINGTON D.C. ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING?
• The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. We have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
• Social Security was established in 1935. We have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
• Fannie Mae was established in 1938. We have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
• The “War on Poverty” started in 1964. We have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” and they only want more.
• Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. We have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
• Freddie Mac was established in 1970. We have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
• The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.”
In 1790, when the first US Census was taken, the population was 3,929,214.
In 1930: 123,202,624
In 1940: 132,164,569
In 1960: 179,323,175
In 1970: 203,302,031
In 1980: 226,542,199
In 2000: 281,421,906
While I am not singing the praises of the aptitude of our legislators, programs established over the past 32 – 234 years cannot be expected to maintain when the need and demographics of the country have changed so dramatically, but the funding increases and rules governing these programs have not.
Bruce – thanks so much for your input – which is excellent! I used the “approval ratings” as an excuse to make some points. I agree with you that the congress’s rating, in the public’s mind, is not relevant. We need an entire overhaul – there is no quick fix. The issue of accountability has been weighing very heavily on my mind for several months now – as it seems that our federal leadership is actually accountable to nobody. But I do believe that, if we sent all our congressmen off for a couple years (even if we still paid them), where they could pass no legislation, we’d probably be better off. They are that inept.