What should be done to get politicians to focus on helping the average American?

Question

I understand exactly why, and I'm going to say that the average American has to be heard so that he or she can be helped. Special interest groups are way to vocal on Capitol Hill and drown out the needs and desires of the average American. What do you think should be done so that the majority of Americans can be helped by the government, as opposed to special interest groups or the wealthy?

Answer 1

ELIMINATE PAC MONEY.

TERM LIMITS

FORCE ALL ELECTED OFFICALS TO LIQUIDATE PORTFOLIO.....AND PAY OFF NATIONAL DEBT.

ELIMINATE WAR CHEST.

ELIMINATE POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS AND DEMAND DEBATES........EVERY TWO WEEKS TO BE TELEVISED ON ALL STATIONS

CAP POLTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS FOR ANY ONE CANDIDATE TO AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THAT POSTIONS ANNUAL SALARY

ELIMINATE POLITACAL ADVERTISEMENTS

TOWN HALL MEETINGS

ELIMINATE LOBBIEST

BANISH ALL CORPORATE TAX BREAKS AND SHELTER PLUS ANY CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICIANS.

Answer 2

The average American has to be involved in the political process if the average American wants to be helped. Special interest groups are able to pass legislation because they are involved. They do what it takes to get what they want. Not very many people in this country give two shits about getting their *** of the couch to support a cause. For that matter, not very man Americans can turn off American Idol to watch CNN. When the average American expresses concern and follows up with true action then maybe the politicians will listen.

Answer 3

You're upside down on government, and what our government is and should be doing. There is no distinction between any classes of people written into the Constitution. We are all created equal!

I do agree to some extent with special interest groups in Washington.

What the heck are you talking about when you say "help"?

Needs and desires? Who is being deprived of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

I would say the average American does fine in representing themselves.

The government is too big and too involved in our lives as it is, I don't think we need any more welfare, redistribution of wealth, or any crazy plans to nationalize healthcare.

Look at how well legal immigrants do in our country! They love America, and they love the freedom!

Americans that think they're oppressed should try living somewhere else for a while.

Answer 4

The 'average america' is being helped. I guess it depends on what you consider average, but the way I see it, when you help people, you only make them worse off in the future. Rent control is a perfect example. Government 'helps' by controlling the price of housing. Landlords now don't have enough money to kill the roaches, give them heat, or keep the paint nice and fresh. And its ALWAYS the landlords fault. And another example is the corrections department...thats a joke. They arent correcting anything. Keep a person in jail for a few years, and people see how nice it can be. They dont have ANY responsibility in jail....and yet they get food, a roof over their head, cable TV, even a free gym membership!! Sacrifice freedom for no responsibility...and get everything you need plus some! Its a wonder why there are so many people in jail. Anyway, what im getting at is that we need to stop helping people, and start encouraging them...or motivating them.

Answer 5

The best thing politicians could do for "the average American" would be to take a long walk down a short pier. Governments have never taken more than a casual interest in the little people, other than to suck more life out of them.
The thing to do is get people involved in the process again; I mean, come on, less than half of us vote, yet we all gripe and moan about the state of things.
Never forget, if you can't find someone or something to vote for, you can always find something to vote against.

Answer 6

It is not our Politicians' job to "help the average American" - it's the American individual's job to help himself or herself. The prime difference between the Constitution of the United States and all political systems before and since is this:

Each individual has inalienable rights - the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - our form of government was designed such that the individual, not the group, has the rights and that the government was to serve at the behest of the individual - not a mob, not for pressure groups, but the individual.

The government is not supposed to guarantee anything but these things - it's up to us individuals to take our freedoms and make our own lives right and happy - not to expect the government to give us things.

We must revert back to the original form of our government, set out in our Constitution, and when that's done, we won't need the government to "help us" - we'll be able to help ourselves and anyone else we want to help instead of being forced (through taxation) to help everyone else but ourselves.

Every proposal to add a "right" to our original rights takes our real rights away from us - there's no such thing for example, as "free healthcare" - the government gets the money to pay for it from us - the working people - take away the existing free healthcare and we all could afford health care for ourselves and our poor and elderly - but force "free" healthcare on us and the only ones who have to pay for it are those of us who work, as citizens. That is the violation of our rights that we need to worry about.

We need to get politicians to STOP HELPING US, not add to it.

Answer 7

We can make the "playing field " fair via the power of the Internet.Politicians would need to put their thoughts
into writing .Our choices could be voted on over the Internet.
We would not need to rely on TV "sound bites" and who has the most signs on the way to a polling place.When the people
wake up to POWER of the many verses the power of the concentrated wealth in the US real change will occur.We need to abolish our present tax system.People should be taxed on their wealth not their income.It is my understanding that 95% of the wealth in the US is in the hands of 5% of the people. We still live in a country were it's one vote per citizen.Lets start voting for the most good for the most people .

Answer 8

I hear what you are saying. First of we need to get rid of special interest groups which can be done by legislation.

I also believe that we should have a National Election Fund where campaigns are funded by tax dollars and not special interests.

That probably wouldn't stop the bribes going to off shore accounts though.

Answer 9

Politicians should NOT be focused on helping the average American. We don't need the Governments help in our lives. We need less intrusion and more of OUR money back through lower taxes. Politicians should be more focused on overseeing the essential operations of the government.

Answer 10

Our educational system needs to change: as it is people are taught to be consuming, working, machines instead of informed citizens. Politicians are as much a product of this as anyone. Producing and consuming may be necessary for our society to function but when it consumes most of ones life, individuals learn to be selfish and competitive instead of being democratic and cooperative. And our representatives learn not only to be selfish and money hungry but to represent our selfish, consuming, competitive, interests.

When the average American is not consuming or producing most of us are too tired to “think” we just want to “veg out” in front of the TV or computer. So we are not expressing our needs to politicians. If we want to be heard by politicians we need to speak directly to them. By veging out we are telling them, “We like bread and circuses. Just keep a pacifier in our mouths and we won’t complain.”

In school we learn to; follow orders, meet deadlines, compete, and trust authority to make our important decisions and take care of our needs. From kindergarten up an Americans life revolves around being a consumer and producer. Kids are actually lustful over sugar and toys. When kids meet each other they ask, “What grade are you in?” We go to a teacher or another adult to deal with a bully or other problems. As adults we still are desire toys and sugar, trust authority, and when we meet another adult we ask, “What kind of producer are you?” In the mainstream it appears that people trust corporations and the government to take care of us and because we are distracted all the time we don’t notice when we are being manipulated or lied too.
As long as children aren’t learning about how the democratic process works and we are so busy working 12 hour days, consuming Duff beer, caffeine, nicotine, video games, and all the other cheap thrills that keep us distracted, a large portion of society will remain uninvolved. As long as we remain uninvolved politicians will listen to the special interest groups who are engaging with them.
While a republican or democrat who is upper class, white, and male often has a choice to vote for that will truly represent his wants. A green party voter, feminist, minority, working class citizen, etc. has to choose between the lesser of two evils or they are, “throwing their vote away.” What kind of incentive is this to become involved in the “democratic” process? However, sitting around the house, getting high, and playing video games isn’t going to help the average American be heard. And the reality is if we were to wake up we would realize that there are politicians out there who are concerned with the plight of the average American but we are foolishly too afraid to support them. The working class makes up most of the voters, if we weren’t uniformed and scared we could easily vote a green party candidate, or another party that isn’t corporate owned, into office.

Answer 11

The only way..... is to have people become more educated and just not buy into the media. The media shows what it does to make money. It panders to the people who get all of their information from it.

If people started READING things would begin to change. The media would start pandering to the educated and the average person to make money.