How many times has somebody asked you to vote for one person or another? People still seem to think that we can vote our way out of America’s downward spiral. This is a fairytale. Even if we put aside the fact that the two major political parties have the entire system locked up we still have to face the fact most of the major powers in the political system aren’t elected, they’re appointed. Former lobbyists seem to constantly find their ways positions of power. They go from persuading politicians to pass laws to creating and enforcing regulations themselves. The newest chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), for example, happens to have been employed as a lobbyist for the cable and cellular industries:
Tom Wheeler will take over as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission after receiving unanimous approval by the Senate today.
Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former head of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) and Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), was nominated by President Obama in April.
A vote on his confirmation “was delayed for two weeks by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who expressed concern about Wheeler’s views on political disclosure rules,” The Hill reported after tonight’s vote. “Cruz lifted his objection after Wheeler assured him in a private meeting Tuesday that tougher disclosure requirements for the donors behind political TV ads are ‘not a priority’ for him.”
Obviously this doesn’t bode well for companies like Netflix or cheaper cellular competitors. In fact I assume regulations will be created and/or enforced in such a way that companies such as Time Warmer, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon will become much more powerful while their competitors languish or die off altogether. We’ve seen this story play out a thousand times before and it will most likely play out a few more times before this country collapses under its own regulatory weight.
Let this story be a lesson. The number of elected bureaucrats pales in comparison to the number of unelected bureaucrats within the state.