ThisIsCommonSense.org

Where were you in 1956? I wasn’t even born. But Strom Thurmond of South Carolina was sitting in the exact same place he sits today: the United States Senate.

He has held office in the U.S. Senate longer than anyone in history: 44 years, and counting. The guy is 97 years old. He’s a fixture in South Carolina politics, but is he still able to do the job for the people?

Well, there are signs the answer is no.

He had to step down as chairman of the Armed Services Committee because he just physically could not keep up with the demands of the position. But who cares, right? He’s got seniority. He has also missed half the meetings of the committees on which he still sits, mostly it appears due to poor health. At least, that’s better than the state’s junior Senator Fritz Hollings, who after serving 34 years has missed 70 percent of the meetings of the Appropriations, Budget and Commerce panels since his last election.

As an incumbent with universal name recognition, Thurmond easily won re-​election in 1996. Still, most South Carolinians think it’s time he retired.

Not that they would want to end his career by defeating him — in effect, firing him. Voters don’t like to do that. Great men leave on their own, but today’s politicians need term limits.

Senator Thurmond should step down and give someone else a chance to serve in the Senate. Let’s just say it’s time.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Thomas Jefferson once said that given a choice between a free government and a free press he would not hesitate to choose the latter. His point was that a free government would quickly degenerate into tyranny were it not for a free press to act as the watchdog for the people. Jefferson understood the political pressure that could be brought to bear on the press.

Now 200 years later the word I would use to describe the state of our press, or media, in this information age is frightening. It was revealed in a recent court case that the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner offered to give favorable coverage to Mayor Willie Brown during his reelection campaign in exchange for political help in selling his newspaper. A deal to slant the news. I guess you really can’t believe everything you read. And this is not an isolated case.

A recent article in Reason magazine says that Al Gore threatened reporters with an end to access at the White House if they reported some less than flattering family problems. The reporters backed down. Whether it’s proper to highlight the difficulties of a politician’s family is a fair question. But they shouldn’t make the call based on threats.

And then there’s the new Clinton administration policy of offering financial rewards to the television networks to influence the content of the shows we watch. Shades of Big Brother. Our journalists are supposed to work for us, and so are the politicians. Houston, we’ve got a problem …

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Ever wonder why our federal government is so eager to break up a non-​monopoly like Microsoft, but is jogging through molasses when it comes to deregulating the power companies?

Microsoft has plenty of competition. Traditionally, the utilities have had no competition, government protected them. Now 26 states have introduced utility deregulation. There have been efforts in Congress, too. But such efforts have stalled. Why? Well, the utilities proved savvier than Microsoft when it came to lobbying the men in DC with the power-​red ties. The utility industry has spent millions to bottle up legislation in Congress. They set up phony front organizations to hide their involvement. One is Citizens for State Power, which has ties to conservatives and a right-​wing tilt; the other is the Utility Shareholders Alliance, which has ties to an electrical union and a left-​wing tilt.

When the lobbyists needed to sway a conservative crowd, they used the one organization; when they needed to manipulate liberals, they used the other. No real ideology. No principles. Just a lot of pragmatic politics to save a rust-​encrusted status quo. Who pays the price? You and me, in higher energy costs. Let’s deregulate two monopolies: The power companies AND the iron triangle of politicians, special interest groups and lobbyists polluting our civic life. Time to give the electric companies a jolt of competition. Time to give the AC-​DC power establishment in Washington another kind of jolt: term limits.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In 1776, Thomas Paine galvanized public opinion for independence from Britain with his best-​selling pamphlet “Common Sense.” Paine wanted America to be a beacon of liberty to oppressed peoples around the world.

“Freedom hath been hunted round the globe,” wrote Paine. “O! receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.” For millions, we have indeed been that asylum, that refuge. But today, some Americans seem to disdain that role.

Peter Angelos, owner of the Baltimore Orioles, is a glaring example. Over the past year, ever since his team played a two-​game series with the Cuban national team, he has refused to sign any player, regardless of talent, who defects from Castro’s workers’ paradise. Angelos, a million-​dollar donor to Democrats, thinks he’s assisting Clinton’s policy toward Cuba. The willingness of a prominent American like Angelos to kow-​tow to a tyrant is disturbing.

And isn’t this employment discrimination? Discrimination against those who risk life and limb for freedom. Once such courage was honored not punished. The policy should be that no dictators need apply. But for Angelos, it’s the victims who are turned away at the door. Let’s not go see the Orioles play in their taxpayer-​financed stadium, not until they cease to be the ally of dictators. It’ll be easy: they aren’t any good this year especially off the field.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Yahale Yadede, a student at Northeastern Illinois University, is getting a first-​rate education in political science. The only problem is that his education is coming from a little real-​world experience in Illinois politics.

Mr. Yadede was elected as the student representative to the University’s Board of Trustees. He worked to represent the interests of students as well as taxpayers, who foot the bills at the public institution. The school’s Board of Trustees is made up of one student and nine trustees appointed by the governor.

From the beginning the Board expected the student representative to be seen and not heard. But that just wasn’t Yadede’s style. One thing he did: oppose a plan to build a palatial estate for the University President. He thought the million-​dollar price tag was excessive and wasteful of taxpayers’ money. He found several residences close to the University available for half the cost. So now the Illinois Legislature is involved, passing a bill forbidding graduate students from serving as the student trustee. You guessed it: Yadede is a graduate student.

The House of Representatives also passed a one-​year term limit on the student trustee, but no limit on those appointed by the governor. The Senate realized how silly they would look slapping a term-​limit on a lone student trustee while merrily cashing in on their own unlimited political careers, so they nixed that provision. Yes, you can get a first-​rate education at our universities just watching the political double standards. Ah, higher learning.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Why are you contributing money to help every incumbent congressman in every district in the whole country get reelected? You probably haven’t asked yourself that question, because you didn’t know you were, did you?

On average, each of our representatives spends over $100,000 of our tax money on mailings that help them get reelected. They don’t have to ask our permission. How on earth do they get away with it?

Congressmen gave themselves this advantage. It’s called the franking privilege. It was originally designed to allow our representatives to respond to our letters, but the career politicians who now rule the roost in Washington have turned it into a reelection mailing fund. Congressmen like to say that they’re just “informing” their constituents with these mailings. Funny though (isn’t it?), that congressmen send out far more unsolicited franked mail in election years then in non-​election years. But I guess we’re supposed to believe that’s just a coincidence.

The franking privilege is just one of many advantages of incumbency. Not only do incumbents tend to enjoy much bigger war chests than their challengers, they’re also able to send out a heck of a lot more mail than any challenger can without spending a dime of their own money. Incumbents spend more of our tax dollars than challengers on average spend in the entire campaign. No wonder over 98 percent of incumbents are reelected. So much for fair elections.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.