Alex Miller for US Senate qualifications

Campaign finance reform

As a nurse, a former tax auditor and a former small business owner, I have seen that most jobs are harder to get than they are to do. The reason for this is that the consequences to the employer of hiring someone who does not perform the job well are very high. So it occasionally happens that employers demand proof of qualifications and credentials that are well beyond what the job itself actually requires. Often those holding the position will exaggerate the difficulties of a job and tout their unique capabilities to meet challenges, thereby lessening the threat to the incumbent. It is a self perpetuating cycle that raises prestige, pay and the difficulty of getting hired, but does not effect the actual job function.

Which brings us to our current crisis in Washington. Our representatives have apparently begun to believe their own self-promotion. Worse yet, we, their employers, are being confused as to what to believe about the job that we want done. Our representatives have so thoroughly mucked up the job that some of us, among the electorate, are wondering if maybe the job is really as difficult as our representatives would have us believe.

Albert Einstein stated "If you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well. Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone. Everything should be as simple as it can be, yet no simpler." As an example, the entire government of the United States of America was outlined in a six-page document, that included a letter of transmittal and a ten-item addendum page. As demonstrated by their brevity and thoroughness, the representatives that adopted it understood how a free country could work. Compare that document to any document recently passed into law by our current congress. By any comparison including succinctness, clarity, forthrightness of purpose, respect for economic laws and allowance for human behavior, that one six-page document surpasses anything in recent memory. The healthcare legislation recently passed is over 2,500 pages of the most intricate and specific language that modern lawyers could compose. On length alone, it is obvious that the authors either did not understand what they were trying to explain, or were hiding their true intentions in a haystack of misdirection.

We, the electorate, looking at a mess such as the healthcare bill, and at the unconstitutional manner in which it was made, seek to find reason. The charitable among us say "they are really trying hard to do it right." The more cynical say " they are hiding something." Idealists say, "our representatives are really trying hard, we should support their efforts, because their intentions are good." Practical people say, "They are either too clueless or too devious and it matters neither which nor why; only that we chose the wrong people to represent us."

The job of elected official falls into the 'harder to get than to do' category because once gotten, too many decide that their main responsibility to the position is to keep it. Every once in a while we get an idealist who wants to do an admirable job for the people, but mostly it seems that politicians regard their lot as having hit the job jackpot and they won't risk rocking the boat. It works out well for them, and, if you consider that their real job is fill the role of government and prevent anyone not elected by the people from forcibly seizing control, it has worked out fairly well for us, until now.

With the current administration, we have fallen prey to single party rule. Party leaders are dictating the behavior of our representatives, under threat of not supporting those representatives in their bids to keep their positions, thus expanding the leaders’ power beyond the bounds of our constitution. This needs to be forcefully stopped, and Democrats need to take the lead in demonstrating restraint and good governance.

It is for the practical people among us to carefully choose a representative who will answer to us, the electorate, before their party. The only way to do that is to support a person from among us and keep that person independent of national party finances. It is not a matter of the job being too difficult for a normal reasonable person, or that our representatives are unqualified for the job. It is a matter of our current representative answering to the party leadership, rather than to the local electorate. It is time to vote for one from among us who will represent us, avoiding any other influence, and withstand the temptation to appear wise in the eyes of the media at the expense of their most important job, which is to represent and protect our interests as Nevadans and Americans.

Vote Alex Miller for US Senate

"Representation of and for Nevada"