The problem with government is not government. It is our own expectations of it.
Each of us has the opportunity to vote. And then we expect that our elected legislators immediately accomplish whatever the reason was that we voted for them in the first place.
After all, our ideas are a lot better than those of people from other geographic areas and certainly a lot better than those of people in the opposing political party.
The irritating thing is that all these other people have the same right to vote as we do. And they elect their own passel of legislators — 203 house members and 50 senators to the General Assembly in Harrisburg, plus 435 representatives and 100 senators to the U.S. Congress in Washington.
Simple math. That’s 253 in Harrisburg plus 535 in Washington for a whopping total of 788 legislators, all expected to accomplish the agenda for which they were elected.
Now of the 788 legislators, right here at home we get to choose one state representative, one state senator, one U.S. representative and two U.S. senators for a less whopping total of five legislators.
So we get five out of 788 voices.
Then, too, is the difficulty that not all voices in Harrisburg and Washington are equal.
Legislators cannot vote on legislation unless it is brought to the floor, and it is not brought to the floor unless it first goes through a committee to which the legislation was initially assigned. And much of the committee’s activity is controlled by a committee chairperson. And the chairperson gets jurisdiction over the proposed piece of legislation only after it is assigned to the particular committed by the House (or Senate) leadership.
So who are the committee chairpersons? These are the legislators in the majority political party in the state House, state Senate, U.S. House or U.S. Senate who have (1) served on the committee for a long period of time, (2) worked tirelessly to maintain the party’s majority and (3) become an expert in the committee’s area of responsibility, whether it be agriculture, budget, education, energy, security, government reform, health, small business, transportation, veterans affairs, immigration, welfare, and the list goes on.
This system is supposedly based on experience and seniority, and it works better for a variety of reasons than legislators shooting each other. But sometimes, as occurred recently in Washington among Republicans, deals are cut by members of the majority party to short circuit this qualification process by, for example, legislators trading votes for speaker of the House in exchange for committee chairperson appointments.
As in any job, a novice is not a journeyman. A beginner is not an expert. And a newbie legislator is normally not asked to be at the decision-making table. Taking on a job in any organization takes time to learn how the system works. Think community boards, churches, athletic teams, the job where you work as examples of how skills are honed and leadership is selected. Now think about the ultimately complex and bureaucratic organizations like the state and U.S. government.
There also is a thing called leadership. These are the legislators with seniority and experience. They have become experts in some areas of governance and have earned the trust, confidence and respect of the majority of other legislators in their respective party. Unfortunately, this time, committee chairpersons in the house were selected for political reasons and to grind axes, not on experience and expertise.
During every election cycle, there are those who say, “Throw the bums out.” These prospective voters are essentially saying that we do not want a voice at the table for the next five to 10 years while the new guy is learning the ropes. And even then we do not know whether the newbie has the capability to become a committee chairperson or a member of leadership.
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A newbie is basically lost, and may never develop into a leader. And this dramatically impacts how the people back home — you and me — are heard, or not heard, are served, or not served.
One alternative, of course, is to shorten the terms of these positions. That’s called term limits. That way we could allow the government bureaucracy to oversee itself. And we all know how well a fox watching over the chicken coop works out.
But then we still have to remember that because we live in a democracy, there has to be some give and take, and we cannot expect anyone representing us to be able to get everything we want, even if that were our original expectation. The only way that could happen would be for our own representatives to become king.
And we Americans decided against having a king nearly 250 years ago.
So the next time you hear big promises from someone about how he or she is going to go to Harrisburg or to Washington and change this or that in the government all by him or herself, tell them you’ll believe it when the Chambersburg Mall fills up with stores.
You might also politely recommend going back to school to learn simple math. Now, let’s see, five voices out of 788 voices is …. certainly anything but a majority.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials, promo and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at[email protected].
