Talking to people on the street, while canvassing door to door and where ever else I strike up a conversation, I frequently hear them express disillusionment with politics and their elected representatives. And with good reason! The same disillusionment is what has propelled me from private life into the political arena.

“Political leaders are out of touch with the people,” is a refrain I hear a lot (and I think it’s true). When local meetings with constituents started getting rowdy, many members of congress just quit having meetings. Imagine that, our representatives are afraid of us! What effect does this have on a representative democracy? What are our members of Congress thinking as they cower in Washington, unwilling to return to their homes without an escort? Is there no one brave enough to stand in front of a hostile crowd and defend his actions? Are there no real leaders in America today?

Political activism is frequently seen as a ladder to power and wealth. In nations around the world, politicians build themselves up as they move to each higher rank, frequently at the expense of the people they claim to serve. In our own country, many state and local officials seem to view their offices as mere rungs on the climb to a greater rank, and are looking to build their own power and wealth as they advance. We, the people, are not blind to this seeming self-serving attitude on the part those who want to lead us, and it generates a lot of skepticism among us.

“What makes you any different?” is a question I’ve gotten a lot.

“Why should we think you’ll do as you say if you get elected? People will say anything to get elected.”

Just a few days ago, a local political activist accosted me with the following question:

“You say you’re pro-life now, but would you sell your vote like Bart Stupak did, and just bend to pressure from the party bosses?”

These are potent questions, born out of frustration with the status quo of American politics; the flip-flop of the last thirty years between big-spending Republicans and big-spending Democrats, and with Supreme Court rulings defining new rights not previously even imagined.

For many in America, myself included, Roe v Wade was a watershed event, a signal that law making was shifting from the control of the people, through their representatives, to a powerful elite, fundamentally different in their thinking from the general populace (whom this elite feel no particular obligation to represent). The rights of a society to define itself (through institutions such as marriage and on issues such as the value of human life and punishment of criminals), are sacrificed on the altar of individualism. We see some people who profess to believe what we believe, act against that belief, and we come to doubt everyone. A certain cynicism about politics is in vogue.

I have no personal political ambitions. I have never particularly liked politics and am quite content to lead a private life. I am presenting myself to the people for one reason; to correct the error of the age, the idea that we can have something great and good without great cost to ourselves, and without a striving to be good ourselves. I am a Democrat because I believe that government is a tool by which we can build a better society, but I am not under the illusion that it will, by itself, do so. Government holds both great promise for the good of the people and at the same time, the greatest threat to the achieving of that good. It can be either friend or enemy to the people, and sometimes it seems both.

My concern with our current situation is not that government has over-reached its authority by passing the recent health care bill, but rather that it has consistently, under both Democratic and Republican presidents and Congresses, over-reached its ability to deliver. Our leaders have made cheap promises into expensive programs without a thought for the future sustainability of those programs. The new health care law is no different. Like Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid in their current forms, it is simply not sustainable. The primary difference between private insurance and government-run programs is sustainability. One of the reasons insurance companies are sustainable enterprises is they are regulated by government and required to maintain a certain ratio of assets to liabilities. It is the greatest of ironies that our local, state and federal governments (federal much more than the others) flout the very rules they force on private corporations!

As I noted in a previous column, all indications are that we are headed towards a long period of economic trouble, increased taxation, higher unemployment, reduced services and benefits and a larger number of people in poverty. The data are clear, and they point to trouble, big trouble. We need responsible change and responsible leaders who will lead us in paths of sustainability and we need them now.