The Demise of Checks and Balances

As I see it, probably the most serious problem in American Politics today is the way in which our legislators are elected or re-elected and all the the things they will do (or not do) in order to maintain their positions.Our "leaders" will do most anything to respond to what they understand of their latest polls. They don't hear a broad sample of their constituents, but appear to respond to the moneyed. Most seriously, they will abdicate such responsibilities as declaring war, in order to avoid actually speaking up and standing for something, like a sensible, productive foreign policy.

Think back to the lead up to Dubya's Iraq War. Hans Blix and his team had examined 750 suspected WMD sites in Iraq with no weapons found, though remember that Don Rumsfeld said,"We know where they are." Cheney and Bush told the most brazen lies connecting Saddam to 9-11. Yet this wasn't moving along quickly enough. We know that the Pentagon already had our invading force waiting off shore as these inspections were going on.

Our Congress may have had some doubters about the efficacy of such an attack, but they would have had to have pulled a "Profiles in Courage" move to vote against giving the President the go ahead. Certainly a mostly unrepentant MSM was cheerleading the war. Here is a major part of the problem, Congress men and women, in keeping an eye on their next election campaign,have just about totally given up their control of war making. They don't want to be accountable. Our Founding Fathers surely didn't want another King who would personally decide who and when we would attack. Going all the way back to the Korean police action, this is what America and its soldiers have gotten.And this lack of accountability I insist is a function of keeping yourself in office. This is probably the most deadly result of the Demise of Checks and Balances.