Our Unrepresentative Government

Leading a (no) charge on Washington!

by Sean Carter
04/01/05

It appears that the President has actually succeeded in bringing democracy to the Middle East. Perhaps, now, he can turn his attention towards bringing back some democracy to the good ol' U.S.A.

The sad truth is that we don't have democracy in America. We have representative government. Yet, the question is, "Representative of whom?" Surely, not the voters.

For instance, if the interests of the voters were being represented in government, then the Senate could have never passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. If approved by the House and signed by the President, this new law will make it more difficult for consumers to discharge credit card debt and medical bills through bankruptcy.

I followed the election very closely, but somehow, I missed the speech in the President said, "If you vote for me, I'll make it harder for you to get back on your feet if you get sick or laid off." Yet, not two months after being sworn into office, this is exactly what he's going to do.

Of course, discovering that the President is in bed with Big Business is about as surprising as discovering Bill Clinton in bed with anyone but Hillary. However, this must be one really big bed because it also holds 74 Senators and likely more than 200 members of the House. However, even with all of this political bed hopping going on, the only people being screwed are the voters. This law will not help a single consumer. It will only benefit the credit card companies, whom to my knowledge, didn't cast a single vote in the last election. Then again, neither did John Kerry.

To make matters worse, our elected officials aren't even pretending that this law is for our own good. You would think that they would at least try the old "Credit card companies will be able to drop their rates if they can recover more money from deadbeats" argument. Yet, even they know that Trent Lott will be elected President of the NAACP before VISA cuts back on its Sopranos-like interest rates.

Their unwillingness to even lie about this law is arrogant, even by Congressional standards. In fact, this kind of arrogance makes Donald Trump look as unassuming as Mother Teresa by comparison. It also makes me mad. And you shouldn't be happy about it either.

Therefore, in the footsteps of our Founding Fathers, we should fight this "legislation without representation" by staging a 21st century version of the Boston Tea Party. Specifically, I encourage you to refrain from paying any of your credit card bills for the next six months. Whenever you receive a bill in the mail, just throw it away. I've been engaging in this form of civil disobedience for the last few years and trust me, it's a beautiful thing.

Of course, you may not want to risk a FICO score lower than your shoe size by engaging in this form of protest. In that case, you should call your representative in the House and inform him that if he doesn't get out of bed with the credit card companies, he's the one who's going to be screwed in November 2006.

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Sean is a practicing attorney who writes a weekly humor column on current legal events called "Lawpsided." Lawpsided pieces appear in a growing number of general circulation papers across the country, including The Los Angeles Times. Moreover, his musings on the law appear on nationally recognized websites, such as jewishworldreview.com, findlaw.com, newsmax.com and etherzone.com, and legal publications, such as The National Law Journal and The Los Angeles Daily Journal. Lastly, he is a regular contributor to national magazines like Razor and Tirade. If you would be interested in publishing this piece or seeing other samples of his work, please feel free to contact him by e-mail, by phone at (626) 786-2095, or through his website at:

www.lawpsided.com