The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

To The Eagle:

Let's ignore politics. When I was younger I used to debate political ideas with my family pretty much every dinner we had. It was great! I remember when the Patriot Act was in the news we delayed dinner over 30 minutes just because we wanted a family friend to join the discussion.

Since then I've redirected my thought process from the political topics to the political system. We can all have opinions on whether an idea will have a net-positive or net-negative effect on our lives and our country. These issues are important, but how can we fix a broken law without a properly functioning lawmaking tool? The problem? Technology. Not like a Ted Kaczynski problem. Just an accidental oops type of technology problem.

You see, When the constitution was created the best source for news was a local newspaper. That newspaper would target their audience which was regularly very small. So when election time came through they would focus on local elections. Specifically the House of Representatives, the person who represents you (it's literally in their job title). The branch of government with the most actual power by design.

When national news became a thing the national news organizations needed to target as many people as possible. If they cover the House of Representatives election in Wahkiakum County no one from Ohio would watch. So they were forced to find some way to engage the entire country: The President. This caused the accidental re-education of the country. They now seem to believe the President is important. I've got great news for you. The President isn't important. Stop worrying about it. The president has very little actual power. If we all start forcing our Representatives to do their actual job by illuminating their importance we can fix the tool that is supposed to fix the problems.

I know this next idea will sound shocking. But, let’s take the president off the ballot. The truth is the president is a face for the government, not the people. So let’s have the representatives and senate (government) pick the president. Then if you don't like the president you can blame your representative and we can replace them a lot easier.

Kyle Rogers

Cathlamet