I have been reading and hearing the name James Dobson in the news a lot over tehe last year or so. I still don't know who he is, but I'm now thinking he must be some type of James Dobson must be a "super citizen" given the privileges and access he has that most of us regular citizens don't. He's not an elected official of any sort, and to my knowledge never has been. Yet, he is privy to have private conversations with top White House officials and federal judges. (quick aside: it seems to me that federal judge should have to answer for participating in such a political conversation) In our democracy, its my understanding at least, that all citizens are to be treated equally as possible. My question is then how do some citizens become so powerful that they get to influence policy and obtain private access to elected officials? Are some citizens more special than others?

I'm a citizen. I've got a clean criminal record. I've served my country in the military and in two civilian government positions. I pay taxes. So, where's my call from Karl Rove? How come I don't get to talk to federal judges about who should be on the Court? Of course, I do have a Congressional representative and Senator that are supposed to do those things for me. And, its probably more efficient for the nation if I call my representatives and have them act on my behalf. Of course, James Dobson, assuming he's a citizen, must have a Congressional representative and Senator? (unless he lives in DC, whose citizens are not represented with voting powers in the Congress) So, shouldn't James be calling his Senator instead of getting these private chats? What kind of show are they running down there?

Obviously I don't have an answer to that. I do though believe that kind of access should not be limited to the super rich or super connected if we are going to have a healthy democracy. And, that is a key issue. Indeed its now my belief that many in government do not want an honest and healthy democracy. Many elected officials and their insiders treat the White House and Congress as their private power clubs and could care less about doing the people's business. They believe that they alone have the right to hold office and make policy. They believe that the rest of us should trust them and never question their actions, motives or decisions.

Well, it shouldn't take too much thought to realize how un-American and anti-democracy that type of attitude and behavior is. My opinion here isn't breaking any new ground and I'm basically writing this on the fly. So, I'm not looking to enlighten anyone with this brief missive. But, I do hope to spur some important questions in some of you. One - what kind of democracy do we want? (since the one we have needs a lot of work and is slipping toward something else) and Two - what are you prepared to do about it? I hope you at least think about it.