Americans are taught, from an early age, the words of those who founded the country.  The rhetoric still guides us.  Not just the Constitution and the Declaration, but in the wide swath of words our leaders, elected or not, have spoken.  We love those words.  People on the right, like Rep. John Boehner, people on the left, like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and people in the middle, like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords,  love them. They take them to heart even as they have slightly different opinions of what those words mean in the here and now.  But, as naive as some say it is, I believe American politicians, with rare exceptions, do their best to honor those good words from our history.  

I don’t start with that assumption regarding those who are not accountable.  I am talking about specific people, on both the left and right; Beck, Limbaugh, Maddow, Olbermann, Maher, Hannity, Savage, O’Reilly, Palin and others.  They don’t have to be elected, sworn in, questioned by constituents.  All they have to do is talk.  They are responsible to themselves, their companies and the company’s shareholders.  They are not responsible to the citizens.  If what they want is money, fame & adulation there is nothing wrong with them wanting those things. They are not responsible to want anything else even though we might hope they have deeper desires.

What is wrong is when you think they have your best interests at heart. They don’t. They have THEIR best interests at heart.  They are NOT your representatives, in life or in Congress. Listen but understand that YOU are responsible for not just your words but how you evaluate and act on other people’s words as well.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Plato, 427-348 BCE, Greek philosopher