Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 9
was done. They were aware that if the environment needed for individuals to pursue
dreams were to perdure, self-perpetuating governors could be a menace.
Nowadays too many politicians have made a career of their jobs, refusing to go back to
live under their own laws and unwilling to lose the privileges they accumulated at the
expense of the governed. Their symbiotic life with the lobby that surrounds them clearly
is addictive. This is a bad sign for the survival of the social compact that created the
New York that impressed me so much and that makes America the hope of the world.
One of the jobs we, the governed, have in America is to make our political class reflect
upon the importance to legislate an end to unlimited terms in office before it becomes a
weighty factor toward decadence. I have yet to find an elected official to steadily speak
for this cause after winning an election.
In the absence of a policy accepted by elected officials themselves to limit their own
terms of office, our constitutional right of petition may give us the way. Theoretically this
shortcoming is subject to correction, and therefore the seed of hope is alive. I consider
unlimited terms detrimental to my opportunities to keep more of what I make because
the longer elected officials stay in office, the more they become symbiotic with lobbyists,
who always have their own agenda. This is always detrimental to the common good.
Also, they are a throwback to monarchical practices. Long-term office holders begin to
act as if the powers of government personally belonged to them. I am sorry to say this is
true even of my friends in politics.
On occasion of being invested as a Knight of the Royal Order of the Dannebrog by
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1979, I was invited to a private audience followed by
a reception and tour of the Royal Palace of Copenhagen. The premises had been in the
Queen’s family for time immemorial, and for all I knew they belonged to her. All Danes
accept that and it is part of their common law. The event was conducted from that point
of view – it was the Queen’s property. On the occasion of Sen. Phil Gramm’s (Texas)
run for the presidency in 1994, I also had the opportunity to have a private tour and
dinner one Sunday evening of the U.S. Capitol. Sen. John McCain (Arizona) conducted
the tour. He acted as a gracious host, but his demeanor reflected an implied birthright to
the place. In less than a full term of service this very sensible senator was already
acting as one of the owners of the Capitol. His manner was appreciative and very
friendly. Yet, it struck me as an indication that he also subconsciously felt that the
money we made as taxpayers belonged to the government as well and that he had
rights of ownership.
I see the effects of long periods of office holding by the same politicians as pernicious to
the common individual’s right to accumulate and enjoy the benefits of his or her own
creations. I see them as an encumbrance to my own ability to set bigger goals for
myself. But the forced transfer of power from common individuals to elites is not
exclusive to political spheres, even in democracies, and there are other factors besides
term limits that must be observed. Abuses of political and economic power are not the
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