Thursday.....Politics....."Power Tends To Corrupt"

In 2004, Massachusetts law stated that upon the vacancy of a Senate seat, the Governor would appoint someone to fill it. Mitt Romney was the Republican Governor at the time. John Kerry was running for President of the United States. Senator Kennedy pushed for a change in the law that would call for a special election so that if Kerry won, Romney would not be able to put a Republican in his seat. Senator Kennedy died this past August and that same law called now for a special election where the Senate seat would remain vacant until the election, to be held about four months later. This would have prevented the Democrats from the filibuster proof 60 votes in the Senate over that period. Over strong criticism, they changed the law once again to allow the now Democratic Governor to appoint a Democratic Senator to serve until the election which will be held on January 19th. In what was supposed to be an easy Democratic victory, a Republican has appeared who is now in a dead heat with the Democratic nominee. The concept has been floated that if the Republican wins, it could take quite a while for the vote count to be affirmed in which the 60 vote filibuster proof Senate would still be there to pass legislation. Democratically held elections are not a panacea to all that ails us in government. You have probably heard of Lord Acton's statement that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Edmund Burke wrote the greater power the more dangerous the abuse. I would not go so far as to say that the norm today is for those in power to abuse it, but it is epidemic in many areas of life and certainly in this administration and Democratic Party leadership. We have a constitution that was meant to prevent this abuse but those in power today seek to redefine the essence of that constitution to one of a living document that can be interpreted in the from the interpreter's point of view rather than the interpreter applying the view of the authors. This is the beginning of tyranny, and this is what we are faced with today.