Mr. Obama, Tear Down Your Ivory Tower

The Founding Fathers never intended the President or the Congress to be locked away from the public. The facts are they wanted them to be regular members of the public, after all we a government of the people and by the people. Overtime mainly because of security our elected officials have become increasingly isolated from the people. As a result, our government is suffering.

It didn’t used to be that way, many Presidents of the past held specific hours at the Whitehouse to hear from citizens. We should return to that and the President should hold a few hours a week to hear the concerns of citizens in person and it should be available live to the public. He will hear good things and bad and I’m sure a few nutty things as well, but the point is he needs to hear from the average American on a regular basis. That would help him to understand those that he governs.

Wednesday night during his speech to Congress when he made the statement that, illegal aliens would not be covered under his government run health care plan a South Carolina Congressman stood up and yelled, “You Lie.” Democrats were appalled that anyone would dare do that to the President, yet it was OK for them to boo George W. Bush during the State of Union speech during his Presidency. The fact of the matter is the Democrats should not be chastised for booing Bush and the South Carolina Congressman has nothing to apologize for calling Obama a liar. Both the President and the Congress need to hear dissent.

Have you ever watched British Parliament on C-Span when the Prime Minister addresses them? You hear emotion, you see reactions of how people feel. More importantly the Prime Minister is questioned by the opposition in an open and public forum. The people get to see the real mood of their nation and how the leadership is being carried out. We need that here in the United States.

We need the leaders of this nation to be in touch with the people. They should not be isolated in an ivory tower. They should never feel they are better than you or me, because they are not. Perhaps is it time to add an Amendment to the US Constitution to require the President of the United States appear before the US House for 2 or 3 hours each month to publicly answer questions asked by the member of the House. Take the President out of his ivory tower and make Congress show its constituents where they stand on the issues without being able to hide. We must return our government to the people.