For over two hundred years a true “government by the people” has been diligently sought after by the American people. When the U.S. Constitution was adopted, only white male property owners were granted the right to vote. Since the original Bill of Rights was enacted there have been only seventeen Amendments to the Constitution; seven of them concerned voting rights. In 1810 the last religious requirement for voting eligibility was removed. The requirement for ownership of property was suspended in 1850. Former slaves were given the vote in 1870; women in 1920; and Native Americans in 1924. Poll taxes and literacy tests were banned in the mid-1960’s. The voting age was set at 18 in 1971.

The right to vote is a right that patriots have fought and died for throughout our country’s history. It is each citizen’s main vehicle for having his/her voice heard concerning the terms, conditions and direction the country establishes that will govern his/her way of life. It is a precious gift that should be utilized with great care and a deep sense of responsibility. We as a people need to be diligent in our scrutiny of candidates for public office. We need to determine if they steadfastly defend our interests; if they follow our wishes or their own agendas when representing us in the halls of congress; if they do what they promised us they would do. We need to be astutely aware of who has the greatest influence on these candidates; is it big business, labor unions, special interest groups or the people who elected them into office. Each candidate’s honesty and integrity should also be carefully considered.

Honesty is like pregnancy, either you are or you are not. There is no status of almost honest or almost pregnant. If an individual cheats on his wife he shouldn’t be provided with the public trust. If he is not honest in his business dealings he should not be entrusted with the business of our country.

Recent polls have shown that the American people have an approval rating of our members of congress hovering around 15 percent. That means that we think that they are 85 percent ineffective. The question arises, would we
knowingly go to a physician for medical treatment who was 85 percent ineffective; buy an automobile that was 85 percent ineffective; or send our children to a school that was 85 percent ineffective? Of course not. But the irony is, if history repeats itself as it usually does, the American voters will send about 85 percent of those ineffective politicians back to office in the next election. The only valid indicator of how an individual will perform Honesty in the future is to consider what he/she has done in the past.

Both houses of congress have a dismal performance record (as does the California legislature) and are in dire need of some “house-cleaning”. Each bad decision they make results in the loss of another of the rights guaranteed us by the Founding Fathers.

America can still achieve the status of a “government by the people” by utilizing the power of the vote to elect those who would best serve the public interest and retire those who have failed us.