06.29.07
It’s Time to Watch the Sausage Makers
Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made. ~ John Godfrey Saxe, 1869
I know that I promised you Mallory, and please trust that though this post is again political in nature it is not going to be a trend, but recent events have concerned me enough that I felt another political post was necessary.
As many of you know, the Senate vote on cloture for S. 1639, variously referred to as “Immigration Reform” and “Amnesty”, failed this week. I don’t wish to discuss the pros and cons of the bill, nor do I wish to debate whether or not the bill would have the desired effects of the various proponents or opponents. I’m less concerned with the content of the bill than the process used to try to pass it.
We have just witnessed something that has never happened in the history of our country. An incomplete bill, with known problems, was put together in closed session with a handful of senators. The incomplete bill was then brought to the full senate, ammended to replace the entire text in what can only be described as a clay pigeon tactic, and when one of the Senators asked for the new text to be read it became necessary to adjourn the Senate because it wasn’t finished yet.
I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on, or whether you were for or against the eventual law as written (though how you could know what was in 400 pages of law within hours of it’s completion boggles the mind), the process invoked was more disgusting than watching sausage being made.
There is a reason that the government is “of the people, by the people, for the people” and it is not so that our representatives can concoct laws behind closed doors and then pass them with even the majority of the Senators voting on them being in the dark as to the actual contents of the bill.
If you think this is a good idea… if you think the ends justify the means… then you need to seriously reconsider the type of government that you really want, because that is not the one we were founded upon.
This was not a “party line” vote in any respect. Though supporters did lean more in one direction than the other, there were many who crossed party lines in both directions. I have never been more disappointed in my government than I was this week, but I also found some reason for hope.
The issue of illegal immigration still needs to be addressed. Whether or not to grant amnesty to those in this country illegally is a decision that still needs to be made. Whether or not we need to secure the borders is a decision that still needs to be made. Whether or not to enforce the laws of this country as they have been written is a decision that still needs to be made. How to do whatever it is we decide needs to be done is a decision that still needs to be made. But whatever is done needs to be done in the full light of day.
Our representatives have been heading down this road for a long while now. They have shown that they can’t be trusted to act responsibly without supervision. It’s time they realize that they serve at our pleasure. It’s time to watch the sausage makers.
