I won’t be caucusing this year. When I was in my 20’s, during the time of the Nixon fiasco, I became convinced that the best solution was to draft our elected officials—just like we do for jury duty. Occasionally juries screw up, but for the most part they do a pretty good job.
I’m coming around to thinking this is the best solution again. Forget campaign finance reform; if we draft ‘em there’s no way to buy an election. Forget lobbying abuses—again, no upside. Forget the morals wars; common sense doesn’t cotton extremism. All the redistricting ills fall into place. So do all the problems related to corporate governance and the ill-defined feeling we have that all law is created to enhance the corporation. If your neighbors are making the laws, you can bet the farm that fair, progressive taxation will be the order of the day. Health care? It’s solved in the first month. War? Not even on the radar.
Would we lose a few good public servants? Yup, but look at all the crud that gets washed away at the same time. Small price to pay from where I sit.
Until we have a viable choice between the lesser evil of twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum, I say draft ‘em all.
I’m convinced that my neighbors can do no worse than those elected. Join me in staying home this year.
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