Governing vs Serving

Last week on WLS, the  morning show had a guest host- a federal representative from Illinois.  I can' t remember which one but he said something that I thought was quite interesting.  While he seemed like a nice guy and was truly interested in what was being said about the fiscal cliff, he also said "because we are elected to govern" and he wanted to do things right.

Problem being, they are not elected to govern, they are elected to represent their constituencies.  This is where they have lost the plot.  This is the disconnect.  They seek to rule, rather than to serve.  In the Senate especially they have created their own hereditary lordships, with the Kennedys as a prime example.

Obama apparently does not understand this difference either, using "Executive Privilege" to circumvent the Congress-- without hue and cry or without being challenged.

The legislative branch is so busy governing that they are not leading.  The executive branch is creating an impenetrable web of regulations that has turned all citizens into unwitting criminals able to be subjectively arrested at the leisure and will of the new ruling class' whim.  And the judicial branch, instead of using the litmus of the Constitution to guide them, relies on precedent and social values  rather than judging against the baseline of our Founding document.

The entire system of checks and balances is out of whack and needs to be recalibrated.  Unfortunately the only way to do so is to take everything back to zero and start over.  When our government is so broken that all citizens are not seen as equal under the law, there is very little else that can be done.