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Behind Bars

‘Incumbents’

By Kevin Cooper

“Throw The Bums Out” is what the people are saying all over this country when it comes to politicians. The people say that they are tired of the status quo, the same good ole boys and girls network, the same old, same old, same old thing!

This current mindset of the majority of the citizens who vote runs across both sides of the political aisle. Change is what they say they want. Change is what they say this country needs. Change!

Isn’t that the whys and hows that got Obama elected as President of these divided states? Well, if real change is to take place, then it is more than just the politicians that need to be thrown out of office.

What about the people that these politicians have appointed to certain jobs, or offices—for example, judges. These people were, and are, being appointed to the courts by the same incumbent politicians that the voters say they want to get rid of, the politicians that they don’t believe in anymore.

These judges, like the politicians who appointed them, have the same political ideology, which means that they have the same beliefs that their political party, and appointees have. That’s why they were appointed. So when, for example, former Presidents like Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Bush Jr. left office, the judges they appointed were free to carry on the ideology of the Presidents who put them on the federal courts. Their mutual ideology has a life-lasting effect on the people of this country.

But before those former Presidents’ appointments of those judges were finalized, the incumbent politicians in the House of Representatives and the Senate had to first approve them.

While a politician may be changed, that doesn’t mean that the impact of his ideology will change when he is no longer in office—especially when it comes to the oh-so-powerful courts that make, uphold, and invent the laws of this land.

Therefore, it may be safe to say that incumbents never really get thrown out... do they? They seem to live on in the rulings of the judges who they helped to get on the bench for lifetime appointments.

After all, they all are cut from the same cloth!