A “Do Nothing” Candidate

Imagine with me for a moment—candidates who run for office with no promises.  Sounds too good to be true?  Maybe, but I submit that the time is ripe for a good “do nothing” candidate.  Jokes about politicians making promises and breaking promises are about as rampant as the lawyer jokes.  Nevertheless, I’m going to offer this key advice to future candidates that I’m sure will be a winning campaign strategy.

Before we talk about the strategy, however, we first must explore the current flaws within our system.  I think you will agree these flaws are obvious, regardless of party affiliation.  Almost without fail, most people would agree that politics is full of special interest money.  No matter what side of the aisle one is on, if you follow the money you will find the influence.  How are politicians rewarded?  They get perks and re-election dollars.  What do they do to get these perks and re-election dollars?  They make promises and then run for office and point to their record of passing more laws or increasing the money that gets spent in their district.  It is obvious that our system rewards politicians for making laws and regulations and spending more money.  However, they run on financial frugality and personal responsibility.  Those ideas, however, are not supported by the system we have in place.  That is why the only hope for real change can only come from We the People.

Our state is full of laws.  We have laws that are passed for all sorts of activities.  The problem isn’t the lack of laws, but the lack of enforcement of those laws.  You never hear a politician, however, talk about that.  Instead, they tout their passage of yet more laws as evidence that they are working for you.  The irony is often lost on an electorate that is so jaded with the lies of politicians.  Let’s take gun control as a prime example.  We have multiple laws regarding the use of guns.  There are laws on who can sell guns, who can buy guns, who can carry guns, who can carry guns concealed, who can trade guns, who can use guns and on and on.  However, the politicians talk about how we need more laws regarding guns.  My heavens, why not enforce what we already have in place?  I, for one, do not believe that success in passing laws is akin to success in representing my interests.  That is not the yard stick I measure a politician by in this day and age.  Yet, the mailers, phone calls and tv commercials all focus on their “success” as passing more laws.

What I want to see is a politician who runs as a “do nothing” candidate.  Now here is the secret that I offer to all future politicians.  Run on a platform of “Elect me because I won’t pass more laws.”  Unique, yes.  Outside the box, yes.  More true to what we need?  YES!  Think about the vicious cycle we are in of electing politicians, politicians seeking money, politicians passing more laws and politicians being rewarded with re-election because of the passage of more laws.  Then ask yourself, “Do we really need more laws?”  What is needed is an understanding that we are a free people and that the highest form of government is self government.  People wonder why we have a “nanny state?”  People wonder why others “fall through the cracks?”  It’s because we are creating a structure that is based on the strength of the state as opposed to the strength of the people that live in the state.  Abraham Lincoln, in the Gettysburg address wondered whether a nation, conceived in liberty, could long endure.  President Lincoln then concluded that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.  The more we have politicians who are willing to “do nothing” the more likely we are to realize that government of the people, by the people and for the people will not perish from the earth.

Until Next Time,

David A. Standridge