Maybe being a federal level politician shouldn't be a path to becoming a millionaire. No. Definitely. It shouldn't be a path to becoming a millionaire. The motivation for choosing to work for the public shouldn't be huge sums of money. It should definitely be fair pay... enough to live comfortably, and be able to support yourself after you serve until you can find your next source of income, but not millions of dollars. And the thing is that I think it's already set up like that for how much tax money gets spent on representative salary. But there's a HUGE problem: there's no law preventing those representatives from taking money from special interest groups or individuals. It's perfectly legal to buy a politician. And that politician can then push for laws that benefit the small entity that bought them, even if it's against the interests of the American people. This situation is wrong. And it keeps lobby groups like the NRA in power. For example, it allows them to dictate to our politicians that we can't do research into gun violence.
No one who truly wants to end the threat of children dying in school wants biased research. Research that starts with a conclusion and then publishes false findings to support their claim will fail to protect anyone. What we (who want to protect children) actually want is unbiased research because we want a real reliable path to take to protect life. The NRA blocking any research is a direct declaration that they care more about protecting their gun collections than stopping the deaths of children in school. And the response we get from them is a claim (from Wayne LaPierre) that the NRA has supported the background check system for years, and that armed guards in schools will solve the problem. But both claims fail the logic test.
First the claim that the NRA has supported the background check system doesn't make sense. If that were true, the background check system wouldn't be so broken. Politicians would have jumped all over the chance at improving the system because the left side of politics wants that, and if the NRA wants that, then so do the right side politicians that they own. So, if the NRA has been supporting better background checks... where is the improvement? I don't see it.
Second is the claim that armed guards at schools is the answer. There was an armed police guard at the Parkland Fl school shooting. He hid. He didn't help. And if he had run in to fight the criminal shooter, could he have prevented ALL of the deaths of the innocent children and teachers? Or would that solution just have curbed the number a little? Do we have to accept that 7 people would have died instead of 17? I mean, sure it's better if only 7 die, but why do any children have to die in school? That's absurd. No amount of arming people at schools will protect all children. More guns is definitely NOT the answer here. But hey... why not allow the research to be attempted? What if more guns turns out to be the answer? I doubt it, but if you (the NRA and people that believe them) are right, then the research will show that.
It is my contention that the lobby system should be destroyed. It is my contention that our representatives should be held responsible to the people they represent. If we make it illegal for our representatives (from the top to the bottom) to receive money or anything of value from anything other than their tax funded salary, at the risk of losing their jobs and facing jail time, the lobbies suddenly don't have power. Any politician that accepts money would immediately not have power to do what the big-money-entity wants, and I doubt any politician wants to spend time in jail. Sure they'd try to find ways around it, but the moment any politician gets caught and faces consequences, the willingness to risk it goes way down. We'd just have to hound our politicians and make sure they stay honest.
Maybe we'd start to see tax policy that actually makes sense. Hold billionaires accountable for their taxes so our government wouldn't have to sap the lower and middle classes so much to fund useful programs. Maybe we'd start to see environmental protections improve again despite the coal industry trying to keep making money off it's dirty practice. Maybe we'd start to see programs that make college public, so our kids don't have to start their lives as adults in the workforce at a deficit. Maybe money would stop going to big tax breaks for huge corporations and rich people, and start going to bolstering law enforcement, fire fighters, public school teachers, road and bridge maintenance, government provided health care (instead of the horrid private industry that makes the people at the top rich while we have to fight to get any money when we actually need it)...
We NEED the government to represent us instead of people with money. We NEED this to stop being a plutocracy, and start being a representative democracy. And we NEED our children to be safe. Period. This is a first world country right? Let's start acting like it.
