I hear from thousands of people every week on the Situation Room and they're not happy.
They're not happy about the war in Iraq, about the worthless politicians in Washington D.C., about a president who has used the war on terror as an excuse to operate outside the Constitution, whether it involves the NSA spy program, which is done without the necessary warrants from the FISA court, or the recently passed detainee legislation, which abrogates the Geneva Conventions and makes an end run around the War Crimes Act by allowing the president to arrest and hold people indefinitely without access to a lawyer or court.
You see, both houses of Congress managed to pass that Republican bill on detainee treatment ahead of the elections. Although it makes illegal broad definitions of abuse, it also allows President Bush to decide which kind of interrogation techniques are permissible. 12 million illegal aliens are in this country, which accounts for about one in every 20 workers. And our borders leak like a sieve, with close to one million more illegals arriving in this country every year.
All the while, the administration rules by fear and excuses all sorts of transgressions as a necessary part of "the war on terror," and "protecting the country." What could be more fundamental to protecting the country than securing our borders and finding out who is here? What is becoming of this country that used to be a shining example of all that was right in the world? We're losing it. That's what's becoming of it. Our government is broken, our reputation in the global community is shot, we are mired in a needless war in Iraq with no end in sight and conditions in Afghanistan are deteriorating. It's not a pretty picture
The politicians don't own this country... we do. I propose going to the polls on Election Day and voting against every single incumbent on the ballot. Think about it. How much worse could it be to have a whole new group of people in Washington who haven't learned how to steal and lie yet?
We want to hear from you bout what can be done. Somehow we have to let our leaders know that they are failing and we know it and they won't be allowed to continue. If we don't take matters into our own hands at the polls, we can just sit idly by and watch this grand experiment in freedom gradually go down the drain.
Tune in to our special on "Broken Government," Thursday, October 19, 7pm ET. And we also want your ideas on how to fix it. You can e-mail us at JackBrokenGovernment@cnn.com or send us videos at cnn.com/ireport.
