Why should the politicians care when their constituents don't care?

After more than enough time to examine government and politics, one thing is clear: The vast majority of politicians on the Left, the Right and somewhere in the Middle know what's right. But the majority long ago determined that doing what's right is just too damned hard.

Liberals know that the so-called entitlements to those who could be productive but choose not to are unsustainable.

Conservatives know that the corporate handouts without sincere, longterm commitments to local job creation are similarly unsustainable.

In either case, more often than not, those in the middle – who really have minimal representation – are left paying for the collective excesses of Left-wing and Right-wing governments.

Whether the decisions are made in Washington, the state legislatures or the local governments, it's a safe bet that the lobbyists' concerns always outweigh the citizens' and taxpayers' concerns.

Take the recent electric utility debacle. (Please.) How many of you tracked the industry payments to Ohio lawmakers? Anyone? That's what I thought.

Well, if you had taken the time, you would quickly discover that the utility industry gave your lawmakers a lot of money. Now, one can only speculate whether that money bore any influence with lawmakers' votes which affected your electric bills. (Some lawmakers were smart enough to bail out for better positions before anything hit the proverbial fan.)

If you aren't careful, the same thing may happen with your telephone service.

But you don't care.

It's obvious that you don't care because you let your representatives in government get away with such nonsense. You glad-hand them at every opportunity. You hand over your babies for the obligatory, photo-op. You nod your head in political cadence as they spew large quantities of political-speak.

Why should the politicians care when their constituents don't care?

Why should anyone in southern Ohio care that House Bill 512 includes land actions, such as allowing the conveyance of Seip Mound in Ross County to the National Park Service?

Why should anyone in southern Ohio care that House Bill 509 would allow counties to form joint departments of Job and Family Services?

Some of us have witnessed how well the Highland County commissioners' recent decision to merge Job and Family Services and Children Services worked out. Simply put, not very well. There are reasons it didn't work, beginning with the potential conflicts of interest among public offices and the subsequent lack of administrative oversight.

But you don't care.

You don't care that in 1958, the United States Congress passed a Code of Ethics for Government Service. By the way, if you ever encounter a public official who is familiar with this code, please call me. So far, I haven't been that fortunate in the past 50 years.

The code, which ought to be in the pocket of every public official in America, reads as follows:

Any person in
government service should

I. Put loyalty to the highest moral principles – above loyalty to persons, party, or government department.

II. Uphold the Constitution, laws, and legal regulations of the United States and of all governments therein and never be a party to their evasion.

III. Give a full day’s labor for a full day’s pay; giving to the performance of his duties his earnest effort and best thought.

IV. Seek to find and employ more efficient and economical ways of getting tasks accomplished.

V. Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether for remuneration or not; and never accept, for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of his governmental duties.

VI. Make no private promises of any kind binding upon the duties of office, since the government employee has no private word which can be binding on public duty.

VII. Engage in no business with the government, either directly or indirectly, which is inconsistent with the conscientious performance of his governmental duties.

VIII. Never use any information coming to him confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means for making private profit.

IX. Expose corruption wherever discovered.

X. Uphold these principles, ever conscious that public office is a public trust.

If, as a voter, you can find a candidate who can even remotely recite any one of these 10 core principles, vote for that candidate. Vote early and often. Then call me, so I can vote for him (or her) as well.

My guess is that less than a third of our representatives in Columbus and Washington know even one principle in this Code of Ethics. If they ever read them, you would not know it by their actions.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press, your only locally owned and independent newspaper, with absolutely no entangling alliances.