Are you sick and
tired of the seemingly never ending political ads on radio and television? Will you be glad when Election Day has come
and gone so the commercials will stop? How
much of the content in those political ads do you believe? In order, my answers are yes, yes and little
to none. In order, what are YOUR
answers? I graduated from high school in
1977 and at that time in Missouri,
my home state, taking and passing civics was a requirement in order to graduate
from high school. Here’s a pop quiz: Can
you name the member of the House of Representatives that represents your
district? Can you name both of the U.S.
Senators from your state? Can you name
the governor of your state? The mayor of
the city you live in? The members of
your city council? What is your direct
knowledge of civics? What is the
progression of replacing the President of the United States beyond the Vice
President of the United States? If
Americans were required to learn and understand CIVICS,
the country would be in better shape.
Let’s face it: No
matter what political party you support, political ads are 98% untrue. They just are. WHY is that the case? Because they don’t have to be. Political parties and campaigns know the
majority of the voters in their respective bases are low information
voters. That may sound insulting. Please don’t receive it that way. What that means is the parties know the majority
of their supporters have no idea how the government works and how the three
separate branches of our government are connected to each other. They know most of their voters have no
concept of CIVICS – how the government works. Politicians make promises and claims they
can’t possibly keep and voters let them get away with it with impunity. The voters don’t know better and they vote
with a blindfold on and with the ignorance of civics. I live in St. Louis and in my media market, we get commercials for Missouri and Illinois politics. There is one candidate running for a Congressional seat in Southern Illinois whose commercials are MARINATED in lies. He is running against an incumbent and he is all but promising to walk on water. He claims the HE will balance the federal budget; that HE will stop the out of control federal spending; and that HE will repeal the Affordable Care Act – aka “Obamacare” – and that HE will create jobs. HE can’t deliver on ANY of those promises. Yet, there is a large number of voters who will hear those hollow promises and receive them as being Gospel and vote for someone who outright lied to them in order to secure their support. For someone who has studied and understands civics, political commercials are hilarious. Governing in the United States is a process – civics – and no one in Washington, INCLUDING the president, can get much of anything done without working within that process.
civ·ics
noun plural but singular or plural in construction \ˈsi-viks\
: the study of the rights and duties of citizens and of how government works
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| The three branches of government |
There are three
branches of our government – the Executive Branch (the president and his or her cabinet), the Legislative Branch
(Congress which encompasses the Senate and the House of Representatives)
and the Judicial Branch (the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice). Outside of Executive Orders, the President of the United States basically has no
power to act unilaterally. The president
can propose a wish list of legislation but that in no way means it will became
law. That is up to Congress (Legislative
Branch) to initiate laws through the process.
The Senate then gives it a good look over before voting on it and passing
it on to the president to sign into law.
Sigh … if only Washington really WERE that simple. Unfortunately, it is NOT. On the night Barack Obama was sworn into
office on January 20, 2009, several prominent Republicans held a pity party in
a Washington steakhouse and arbitrarily decided to NULLIFY a national
election by obstructing ANY and EVERY
thing President Obama proposed – regardless if it was something they previously
supported. (Will the obstruction plot the Republicans hatched on January 29, 2009 pay off in the 2014 midterm election?) The Republicans basically
decided to work AGAINST the best interest of the country in order to politically
damage Barack Obama. The Republicans
have used a Senate procedure rarely used prior to the Obama Administration to
obstruct just about everything – the filibuster. In order to pass a bill in the Senate these
days, a bill needs 60 votes in order to pass.
Since there are currently 53 Democrats in the Senate who support the
president, a bill would need 7 Republicans to join the Democrats. It is CRYSTAL CLEAR to see why bills
rarely make it through the Senate. The
Republicans have blocked a jobs bill that would have created 1.6 million jobs;
they oppose raising the minimum wage; they have opposed closing loop tax loop
holes that corporations, billionaires and millionaires use to skate paying
taxes at the same rate the majority of us do all by using the filibuster. A president needs 60 members of his or her
party in the Senate and for his or her party to control the House in order to
push his or her agenda and not have it obstructed by a filibuster. Since the
majority wins in our democracy, the majority of Americans would like to see the
president they elected enact his or her agenda.
A president also
appoints members to his or her Cabinet.
Those nominated to Cabinet positions need Senate approval. Getting these positions filled is very
important to any president. For
instance, the position of Surgeon General is a Cabinet position and with an
outbreak of Ebola, the country NEEDS a doctor in the Executive
Branch strategizing on how to combat the deadly disease. The Republicans have blocked the confirmation
of Dr.Vivek Murthy to the position of
Surgeon General. To be more specific,
Republicans in the Senate are blocking his confirmation on the orders of the
NRA. Dr. Murthy’s sin was supporting a
ban on assault weapon. (Why the NRA Is Blocking Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee) Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced his
resignation but has promised President Obama he will stay on until a successor
has been confirmed by the Senate. Eric
Holder conceivably could remain in that job until the end of the Obama
Administration considering how determined Republicans in the Senate are to
obstruct Cabinet appointments – ESPECIALLY the Attorney General’s
position. The Executive Branch NEEDS
the cooperation of the Senate and the House.
Just as the
Executive Branch needs the Senate, the Legislative Branch NEEDS the president. No legislation can become the law of the land
UNLESS
and UNTIL
the President of the United States signs the legislation. If the House and Senate wants to enact its
legislative agenda, the legislation must appeal to the president, plain and
simple. If it doesn’t, it’s not going to
happen. The president has the power of
the VETO.
Legislation is originated in the House.
The Speaker of the House sets the agenda in the House. The Speaker and the president have to have a
positive working relationship which is non-existent in Washington these
days. If American voters want to end
gridlock in Washington, they will ideally elect enough House members from the
sitting president’s party in order to have a Speaker from the president’s
party. Voters need to know WHO
represents their Congressional district in the House in order to hold that
House member accountable in the area of acting within the interest of the
agenda they would like to see enacted in Washington.
The Judicial
Branch is responsible for interpreting and upholding the laws of the United States of America. This includes the Supreme Court and the Attorney General who supervises all legal matters as they
pertain to the United States and who also supervises federal law enforcement
agencies; namely the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the FBI). The Supreme Court hears and rules on cases
and those rulings become legal precedence.
The nine justices are selected by the President of the United States and
must be confirmed by the Senate.
Presidents usually nominate lawyers who
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| The Supreme Court building |
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| Department of Justice logo |
share the same political
ideology as they do to the Supreme Court.
After all, these are LIFETIME appointments and
appointments to the Supreme Court is one sure way a president ensures his or
her time in office has remaining influence on the country long after he or she
leaves office. The current Supreme Court
has 5 conservatives and 4 liberals and recent rulings have been along
ideological lines. If the American
people don’t like rulings by the Supreme Court, then voters need to elect a
president and a Senate that shares a common ideology who can nominate and confirm
justices to the Supreme Court. Simple. Presidents also nominate judges to federal
courts, including those very important courts of appeal.
As important as
the three branches of the federal government are, state and local branches of
government are just as important if not more SO. I would say more so because state and local
government affects our lives more directly.
Who is your state’s governor?
Which party is he or she in?
Which party controls your state legislature, therefore controlling your
state’s legislative agenda? Who is your
mayor? Your County
Executive/Administrator/Supervisor? Who
is on your city council? Who is on the
School Board that directs the schools you send your children to? Do you know how any of these offices and
entities are supposed to work? Do you KNOW?
Do you CARE?
As I have tried to
point out here, no ONE person can perform the Herculean tasks they promise on
these political commercials. NO
one. Please keep that in mind when you
decide on WHO you cast your votes for.
Another point to keep in mind is this: The people who make decisions
that affect your lives are ELECTED.
They work for YOU.
YOU have the power to either REHIRE, HIRE
or FIRE
them on Election Day. Please know this, TOO:
EVERY
election matters. There are issues that
affect your lives on the ballot in EVERY election. It is your DUTY as an American to
participate in the process. What would
be helpful is to know what the people you vote for or SUPPOSED to do and what
they CAN
and can NOT do after you elect them.
By the way – how many of you
could name the politicians that represent you?
If you struggled with some, most or all of the questions, that’s
okay. You have some homework to do. However, if you’re a parent of anyone younger
than voting age, please make sure your kids are equipped with the
information. You owe that much to your kids,
your country and, most importantly, yourself.
If Americans were
required to learn and understand CIVICS, the country would be in
better shape.
Peace, peace.
Craig Riggins
Facebook: The
Riggins Report
Twitter:
@CraigRiggins
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