Incumbency: Enemy of the State

Incumbency is on the verge of taking down America for good. Greed trumps good every time, and that is a human weakness that can destroy everything the Founding Fathers hoped for us;

Steve Rossiter ——Bio and Archives--March 20, 2026

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It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the root cause of political corruption in America is the incumbency process associated with legislative reelection efforts. The United States Congress has become a criminal enterprise that has made thousands of federal legislators rich beyond most people’s imagination. Paupers get elected to Congress and in a relatively short time become millionaires. How does that happen? What allows this to happen?

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." ~ George Washington

First and foremost, We the People got lazy. We the People, instead of doing our job and limiting how long a legislator could serve, allowed a governing elitist career political class to develop, and this was a big mistake. When the founders wrote the United States Constitution, they didn’t anticipate that anyone would want to turn “service in the legislature” into anything but a short-term obligation. The Founding Fathers could not envision federal legislative positions becoming a life-long career. Yet in 2026, we have federal legislators who have been in office longer than the majority of American voters have been alive. There is something wrong with that picture.

"Politics is a jungle-torn between doing the right thing and staying in office." ~ President John F. Kennedy (D-MA)

The villain in this picture is incumbency. Those aspiring to become professional long-term career politicians start the balancing act of doing their job and funding their next reelection campaign. So, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” become the siren’s song among politicians and between politicians and those who fund their reelection and other special interest groups. That’s when corruption develops. Doing the right thing dies on the alter of staying in office and getting rich.

I may be naïve, but I still think most politicians first go to Congress to do the right thing. However, once firmly established they first get distracted because of money and later just can’t withstand the highest bidder.

Human nature is human nature. The really good people end up not being able to stomach the corruption and leave Congress in disgust.

I have been an advocate for Congress to pass term limits legislation. Sadly, there are too many crooks (bad guys) in Congress, and the good guys will not succeed in slaughtering that corruption cash cow. Also, it is sad that there will likely never be a Convention of States because there are too many bad guys in the state legislatures to pull that together. The only viable solution I see now is for the American voters to man-up and stop voting for incumbents. It is the hardest thing we will ever do because we want to believe “our guy” is a good guy. Or just as likely, we want our tribe (political party) to have a majority in Congress. Well folks, if we keep doing what we have always done, we will continue to have the swamp of corruption we now have. Only We the People can fix what is broken in Washington DC. The federal and state politicians won’t do it, so if we want it fixed, we will have to do it ourselves. The truth hurts, doesn’t it?

In my humble opinion, incumbency is on the verge of taking down America for good. Greed trumps good every time, and that is a human weakness that can destroy everything the Founding Fathers hoped for us.

After a 55 year career as a professional pilot in the military, in law enforcement, in the private sector, and in federal civil service, I am now retired.

In many of these positions I repeatedly took an oath to defend the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.

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