Fayette: In politics, no one’s an outsider anymore

Voters and politicians alike rail against “Washington” as if it were populated by aliens. News flash, folks: We are Washington. Fifteen of those congressional puzzle pieces are shaped like Georgia, and the rest are our American kin. We collectively put those people there and we’re collectively responsible for them, good and bad.

Incumbents running for re-election — including Fayette’s U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland — act like they’re racing to put out a fire, hotly debating who’s got the bigger hose while conveniently forgetting that their fingerprints were on the matches in the first place.

Newcomers, like the tea partiers, act as if they’ll just march onto Capitol Hill, plant their flag, and politics as we know it will turn around. (You’d have to drink something stronger than tea to believe that.) Democrats pride themselves on diversity and then stumble for lack of cohesion.

It’s disturbing that the Georgia delegation doesn’t look like many of the faces I see daily. Our representatives are exclusively male. Eleven are white and four are black; none is Latino or Asian. All have access to funding, favors or both.

I don’t advocate voting for anyone for purely demographic reasons, but you can’t fault the government for not changing if its composition rarely changes.

If local politicians become state politicians who become federal politicians, that makes them career politicians. And getting career politicians out of office can be harder than getting gum off your shoe. In Congress, everyone’s in favor of limiting everyone else’s term except his own.

Alternatives could be single-term limits or selecting candidates by lottery (perhaps like jury duty). Seriously, what could it hurt? If we the people don’t change the rules, vote in greater numbers and hold our reps more accountable, Congress will only listen to those who pay to play.

Politics at any level, whether it’s the PTA or Congress, is messy, complicated and prone to our imperfect human failings. It always has been, but war and the recession have taken a huge toll and we can’t take much more.

The USS USA won’t make any headway if half the oars are rowing in one direction and half in another. We’ll continue going in circles until we remember that “united” comes before “states.”

“Washington” is only as effective — or as flawed — as we the people make it.

Jill Howard Church lives in Fayette County. Reach her at jillptcblog@aol.com