To the editor:
Real change in the politics of this country can only be achieved by removing the mantle of power from the power brokers who now control, groom and manipulate the selection and pool of political candidates — and by reversing the long-standing trend of the transfer of governance from the local community, where it is most effectively and fairly applied, to increasingly remote and centralized authority, where it is least effectively and most unjustly applied.
This is easily accomplished, and will not require that we form up on Lexington Green.
Our enemy is the political party system — both Democrat and Republican — which grooms and nurtures professional politicians in a system of rewards and punishments designed to consolidate and perpetuate power and wealth — the political machine.
Our elected professional politicians do not engage in reasoned dialectic to arrive at a consensus of what is best for us; they do not vote their minds and their conscience. They posture and make grave speeches to an empty assembly for the benefit of the Congressional Record.
The party whips do their job, and votes are cast along party lines. Any politician who does not toe the party line will suffer the sanctions of the party bosses, and more. The struggle is one of power, not of enlightenment.
The professional politician is a pretender whose currency is a favor. His position on any matter changes with the audience whom he is addressing at the time.
A politician's vote is predicated on his party affiliation, not on his conscience. He knows what he must do to survive in party politics — as some ladies have known from time immemorial.
Contrast that with what might be.
Consider a Beacon Hill Legislature and Washington Congress of unaffiliated individual representatives — each limited to a single term of office.
By that single move, entrenched power in Washington would be eradicated.
Without re-election looming, the elected representative would not be beholden to special interest groups for donations to a re-election campaign, would not be beholden to any party boss for favors, would not need to waste his time, better spent on the people's business, lying to crowds in a re-election bid, and would be free to do the business of the people honestly without fear or pressure.
Without professional politicians, people of the community, of diverse backgrounds and experiences — teachers, tradesmen, businessmen — would bring real-world experience to the table as representatives of their communities, and would have a genuine interest in solving the problems of the community, through honest political discourse, rather than the politics of party-line votes and gridlock in an endless struggle for power and supremacy over the other.
With that, the whole incestuous circus that is Beacon Hill and Washington would be utterly drained of its current power. The right of governance would of necessity flow back to the people and the community in more appropriate balance.
This scenario is neither radical nor a pipe dream. It is easily done — with the political will of the electorate. For now, we still have the ultimate authority with our vote, even if as an electorate we are fragmented and unorganized.
Political parties are even less necessary than desirable. Communities could put forward candidates for office through caucuses or town meetings. Surely, once every four or six years an individual of reasonable intelligence and good character could be persuaded to serve a term of office.
Public television could be employed as a forum for candidates to give an account of their thinking on various issues, and the voters make their selection, possibly through a regional primary, followed by a general election.
As a first step, we certainly have the power to limit a politician to a single term of office only — and that doesn't even require a constitutional amendment; simply vote every incumbent out of office, every time. No exceptions.
That's not only real change; it's a change for the better.
DOUG HILL
Lanesville
