US Government is in Need of A Major Overhaul

Over the past decade the call for change in the US Government has grown stronger. Barak Obama took advantage of this during the last presidential election with campaign slogans like “Change We Need” and “Change We Can Believe In”. Obama promised big but has yet to come through on many of the things he promised during his campaign. The blame for this does not solely fall on his shoulders; instead it points out bigger fundamental flaws in our government.

The time for a more drastic overhaul of our government has come. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.” Our best hope, as a nation to return to prominence, will be to dissolve our current system and start fresh. Start with a new political and economic system with the Constitution as the law of the land and give the people of the country more power.

The world is changing and with the help of technology the people of the US now have a bigger voice than ever. With the help of blogs, twitter, Facebook, and many other social media outlets groups of protesters and special interest group are able to communicate and build a following the government cannot ignore. The new political system for the country should embrace this and not try to censor it. The best political system to embrace the new world is a democracy. A democracy gives power to the people of the country. With the expansion of smart phones and tablets, technology is in more hands than ever. Implementing a National Voting system that allows for voting more often is not unthinkable. If American Idol can get people to vote over 40 million times a week, it should be easy to get people to vote for national laws that will affect their lives. Giving more voting power to the people would not mean completely eliminating the federal government.

Eliminating the Government would lead to complete chaos or anarchy. The country would still need elected officials to decisions on things that cannot wait for a vote. The amount of elected officials would be vastly smaller, but would still have the three branches we currently have. The biggest differences would be to Legislative Branch of government, with the elimination of most of the positions, and the elimination of political parties. Under the new system States would be limited to one Senator per state. Cutting back on the amount of elected officials would save the country money allowing tax money to be spent on more important things like the education of the youth of the country. Eliminating political parties would make it easier for people to vote based on the issues and not political affiliation. This helps to remove blinders and can help focus on solving problems of the country like the economy.

Economically the US has been going the wrong way, letting other countries pass us upeconomically. We have become less innovative and become more about pinching pennies and finding ways to trim costs instead of grow business. Our Capitalist system has gotten out of sync due to many socialistic policies. In a capitalist system prices, production and distribution of goods are decided by competition in a free market, allowing for innovative thinking and giving everyone the chance to become the next big thing. Capitalism is what the US is all about, its why people from around the world here, It’s the “American Dream”. Capitalism without some check and balances can lead to an unbalanced economic system, with the separation of the rich and poor growing to far apart.

Successful economies have a balance of rich, middle class, and poor. In these economies both the poor and middle class feel like they have the opportunities to get to the rich class. When capitalism is left unchecked this balance can become top heavy and the middle class and poor become angry. To keep this balance, some socialistic policies must be implemented. Policies like social security, welfare, disability, unemployment, and the FDA, which help protect people and make sure they are taken care of in times of need. These policies are already in use in the US, but all of them need reform to better serve the people of the country. Other socialist policies that include oversight of many businesses, limit the businesses ability to function and grow. Lack of oversight can be harmful, which the country saw in 2008 with the housing market burst, but if the companies are held accountable, and allowed to fail when they make these mistakes, they will have incentives to make smart business decisions.

Obama’s Campaign for changes was filled with the right messages, but due to the current system the country has in place, he was limited in his ability to come through on his promises. It is time for a change to our government that will allow the president the ability to make the changes needed to make the country better and give the people of the country the ability to help him. If the country changes there is always the possibility of the changes failing, but our current system is already failing. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we do not make a change to our government now, we will all become insane together.