This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Recent Public Forum letters debating the subject of term limits started me wondering what may be at the core of why we continue to re-elect our congressional contingent even though many polls show the average person on the street thinks they do a lousy job. Count me in that group as well.
From my view, a one-word answer would suffice: Gerrymandering.
If you want an answer with more than one word, give the following idea a little thought. Elections should also be publicly funded. No outside money, period. Oh, yeah, open primaries would be nice as well.
By electing representation which has passed ill-conceived laws, "We the people" have ceded the true power of our democracy to those who have the money to buy the power of the office, create favorable electoral bases and send those we (the non-approvers) dislike so much back to "serve" us. But the "us" are those with the cash, not the average person on the street.
"We the people" have made a mockery of democracy. Only we, the voters, can repair it.
Elections today are more brokered and bought than legitimately won at the ballot box.
Dave Glissmeyer
Salt Lake City