Forum Post: How can Congress vote for the rest of the 99% when they don’t live like the majority of us?

See the how the salaries grew in the latter 20th century, and this does not include all of the perks.

http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/payandperqs.htm

Like it or not, the US is not a democracy; it is a republic---a democratic republic. Supposedly, we, the people, elect representatives to vote in our interests, but as we all know, that has continually dissolved throughout the latter part of the 20th century to the present. We can debate the reasons why, but the founders believed it was the best form of government, b/c democracies generally get overtaken by corrupt dictators at some point in time.

And when Americans are more interested in American Idol or watching any reality TV show than what’s going down in Washington, we get a representative government like we have now, full of corrupt humans voting themselves new raises and perks.

Although I completely understand the angst of OWS, I don’t believe that OWS will succeed by camping outside of Wall Street and the banks. Let the squabbles begin with the Trademark issue!

In order to take back this country, we need to elect representatives who represent “we the people” b/c we do not have a democracy, we have a republic. And, yeah, it’s not that easy to vote for a decent representative, if you’ve been voting for the last decades because of the corruption we have allowed to continue!

Senator Durbin reintroduced SB 750 in April 2011, (it didn’t come up for a vote in 2010) and there is a corresponding House Resolution 1404, The Fair Elections Now Act. Check out the bill on Thomas.gov or http://www.fairelectionsnow.org or http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=2346 Why did the bill die last year? How many of you were logging into Thomas and urging your representatives (by phone, e-mail, texting) to VOTE for this bill or how many of your were watching American Idol?

Ok, the bill is not perfect—in fact it’s voluntary! But, it’s a start. And another start: All branches should make what the average American makes. But, let’s see….Congress drafts the laws, votes on the law… and then, the President signs the law… CAN IT HAPPEN?????? We need to elect those in the 99% as our representatives.