For the past five to 10 years, I have been hearing a trend in politicians and voters alike, saying different forms of the phrase "this is the best we can do," either as a question or a blanket statement when it comes to the political discourse in this country. It has become a phrase in use more and more frequently but for two different reasons.
When it comes to politicians, they say the phrase to excuse themselves from their basic work responsibility, and that responsibility is to the voters, the people who sent them to wherever they are, representing them. Remember, they are not lawmakers or legislators; they are first and foremost our representatives only.
When the so-called "Border Bill" was introduced in the Senate, it was touted as a bipartisan bill to address the issues on the southern border, and that it was the best deal they could come up with to allow the President to take action on illegal immigration. Politicians, mostly from the wonderful liars on the left, came out and praised the bill, while mocking anyone who opposed it. Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House said "nay nay," and killed the bill before it even got to them.
Essentially, the bill was a perfect example of "this was the best we could do." The best that our elected leaders could do to address the disaster of epic proportions on the southern border was to draft a bill named specifically to do just that, but therein lies the problem. The 370-page bill had a total of $118 Billion worth of appropriations in it, with only $20 billion going to address the border issue. That's what America gets; we get just over 16 percent of the total funds, but Ukraine and Israel get the rest. If that doesn't show the American people that our "representatives" don't give a damn about us, or this country, I don't know what does.
Read More on the "Border Bill:"
The 'Border Security' Deal Is Utter Trash, but There's One Provision That Is Just Infuriating
McConnell's Camp Looks for Someone to Blame for the Border Bill Fiasco
When did we as a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy, start allowing our elected representatives to become the monsters that they have become? Unless I am wrong or unaware, I have not seen a clean bill that addresses only the issue that it is named or titled after in the past 30 years, at least. For example, to truly be referred to as a "border bill," it must only mention the border and the problems that are attempting to be solved with the legislation. No pork, no markups, no trailers, not a damn thing else. But both parties are guilty of loading up bills with so much pork and fat, that the beautiful pin-up model that is the name of the bill, ends up turning out to be a 5-foot, 400-pound body positivity model that is four cheeseburgers away from a massive heart attack.
Part of the reason we are in the situation we are in right now is that more and more, we hear the voters ask the same question; "is this the best we can do?" They are referring to the fact that with a population of approximately 341 million people and approximately 161 million registered voters out of approximately 239 million eligible voters, the question raised is a really good one. You are telling me that with almost 240 million people that could likely vote, in addition to being eligible to run for office, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Nikki Haley, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are the absolute best we can do? Really? Out of 240 million people, are you telling me that all we can come up with is a handful of people for the Presidency of the United States? Really?!
I am currently a Party official with the Los Angeles County Republican Party, serving as their Executive Director. During this election season, I was approached by numerous voters in a certain Senate District that had two Republicans running for that seat. These voters all said the same thing about both of the candidates: "Is this really the best that we could do?"
The compounding problem I (and other Republican Party officials) am seeing is the constant flow of people who are either completely out of their depth but run for office anyway or the consummate political professional who was groomed to assume office. Very rarely do we see the likes of a "Trump candidate" who came out of left field, but is savvy enough to say and do the right things to get elected and for the most part, excel far past expectations. However, we have become so apathetic as voters; we just keep voting for the status quo, even when it has been proven to fail us more often than work for us.
The anger we see never translates into our votes, because we fall into that trap of "well, this really is the best we can do," so we continue the cycle of sending people who rarely have our best interests in mind when they get there. They sit in office to become further corrupted by the hivemind virus that is modern-day politics. They spend more time fundraising for re-election and/or getting their names and faces on television and the news, in general. It is a truly rare occurrence where there is someone in politics who remains unknown to many, even to some of their voters. They just quietly do their jobs, handle their business, and either leave the office without any fanfare or stay in the office with the same.
You may recall when Fox News' Laura Inghram a few years back notoriously told professional basketball player LeBron James to "shut up and dribble."
'Shut up and dribble' — Fox News's Laura Ingraham to LeBron and Kevin Durant after their criticism of President Trump pic.twitter.com/0BlokQDIIl
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 16, 2018
Maybe it's time to tell our politicians to just shut up and do their jobs. Shut up and give us a clean bill on whatever it is you are trying to fix, stop stuffing bills with pork and other examples of wasteful government spending or fraud. It is time for us to take our power back by putting forward for office well-qualified candidates, and not activists. We need to stop advancing people who know next to nothing about how the Constitution works. Let's start putting in people who believe in small/limited government, who put the Consitution before all else, and who agree that the Federal government should absolutely be limited in size and power--and allow states to do what they want, not the other way around.
