For the entirety of this short century, Americans have dealt with misfortune: dot.com bubble burst and mini-recessions, terrorist attacks, extreme law enforcement response, two extremely long-running (and basically unwinnable) wars, other military conflicts, numerous natural disasters (e.g. Hurricane Katrina) and some unnatural ones (BP oil spill, the budget crisis) and, of course, the world economic disaster that was the sub-prime mortgage crisis, from which we’re still reeling.
This time of hardship should’ve seen the rise of exceptional leaders, but instead has resulted in extreme partisanship, obstructionist politics and a great number of incompetent or completely stymied and powerless politicians. Yes, there may be a few great leaders out there, but in the sea of incompetent or selfish leaders, the great ones are effectively blocked.
Americans have lost trust in our politicians. The banks and automobile companies get bailouts and the CEOs get raises, oil companies make record profits and still receive tax subsidies, but the American people get foreclosures and rampant unemployment while many local governments face bankruptcy. Moreover, the politicians lie with impunity about nearly everything under the sun, in their mad scramble to compete with each other and get elected for the next term.
We need to trust our leaders – the first step is for them to be held accountable for the things they say.
That’s why I created this petition (on White House site, due Nov. 12, 2011):
Promote Accuracy and Accountability in Political Speeches/Campaigns
We citizens expect our elected representatives and candidates for office to present accurate statements with regard to factual events and information (along with their opinions and viewpoints) in public speeches and campaign materials. However, some candidates and elected officials present “factual” material to the public that is inaccurate or missing crucial detail, and therefore misleading.
We ask that regulations be established requiring federal representatives and candidates to be held accountable for their public statements in the areas of: voting records (their own and those of others); economic data; science; and history. Statements found to be demonstrably misleading would require correction in a forum of equal or greater public exposure than that in which the statement was made.
