Just for a moment, think of your worst experience at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
You didn’t feel like you were in charge and the government was working for you. No, it was pretty much the opposite of that.
Why did that happen? It really comes down to a lack of accountability.
If you didn’t like what happened there, no one at the RMV would be fired. Nor would any of their bosses be fired. Since the Governor ultimately is in charge of the RMV, I guess you could try to hold him accountable but, in reality, has anyone’s decision about re-electing a Governor ever turned on their RMV experience?
The odds of that would seem long – ordinarily, there are plenty of more direct reasons to vote for or against an incumbent Governor.
Could that be fixed? Sure. We could put the Registrar on the ballot; the Registrar would then be directly accountable to the voters for what they go through at the RMV. Service would improve to what we want it to be or there would be a lot of former Registrars around.
But this isn’t about the RMV, it’s about the next attack that, inevitably, will be made on the Electoral College. At its core, that attack is about whether we will remain the “United States of America” or will become just “America” (at least until Vespucci gets the Columbus treatment).
Centralized Federal power is high on progressives’ Winter Seasonal Holiday wish list; maintaining local accountability in places like Wyoming is not.
But how would it work if the boss of the boss of the boss of your local RMV worked in Washington, D.C.? Who would you hold accountable for the service? And how? By voting for or against a particular President? There may be more compelling reasons for that vote.
For We The People to best maintain power over our government, we need to make sure that government officials are accountable to us. If we let them duck that accountability, we – ourselves – will be accountable for the consequent long lines.