Authority, not power to the elected

Now that the election is over, our media outlets are focused on the "transfer of power". I object to this characterization - it is an orderly transfer of authority to a new administration. Not power - authority, administration. Power derives from the people, and we make a bargain with our elected officials to handle the levers of government, not acquire it for their own purposes.

It may seem a small point but this is a crucial difference, and not recognizing it is a minor abdication with real impact. Pretty soon our elected officials begin to believe that it is power, not mere delegated authority that they hold. Then we may begin to believe it. A few steps forward toward an escape from freedom.

Sounds ominous but when you look at the Washington culture and where it has led us, caution and vigilance are needed. We simply must reassert our inherent power and exert some oversight over what our charges are doing - with our money, with our principles, with our lives. By doing so our action will interfere with the natural tendency to ignore, manage, manipulate the "citizens, the electorate, the ordinary Americans". If you need proof, just consider that our public servants have allocated over $150 billion of taxpayers money to AIG with little explanation or justification. Outrageous.

Exerting oversight will take work, and education - Civics in particular - will be needed. But we have advantages. We have the web, and we have recent evidence of how much an administration can blunder all of us into diplomatic, economic and military mayhem. So let's take a few steps forward and hold on to what is ours. After all, it isn't "the" government, it's "our" government. To every public official who is not forthcoming, let's say in unison, "hey, we're the people you work for, lad."