Ewwwww....a Contractor!

My name is Bilbo, and I'm a contractor.

This is a term that carries a certain odor these days, largely as a result of the deadly activities of the security contractors (we used to call them mercenaries) employed by the US in Iraq to compensate for the lack of troops. But contractors in general are a fact of life in a government turned upside down in its misguided search for economy. After all, you've got to save money somewhere in the vast Federal budget in order to have the money to pay for all the stupid pork-barrel projects our Senators and Reprehensives load onto the hapless taxpayers. The system works like this: our elected leaders (Republicans more so than Democrats, but both are guilty) rail that Big Government is evil and needs to be cut back. They buy out, fire, or simply don't replace a large enough number of civil servants to be able to crow that they're finally bringing Big Government under control. But because the amount of work to be done by those civil servants who remain doesn't go down, and unhappy constituents complain that their expected services are no longer being provided, Federal agencies find themselves short-handed and need help ... so they spend money to hire contractors to do the jobs that used to be done by the folks they got rid of to save money in the first place.

Didja follow that?

Now, I must admit to being conflicted on this issue because I am, in fact, a contractor. When I retired from the Air Force in 1996, I was hired by a company to fill a position on the Air Staff in the Pentagon. I am still doing the same job today (although I'm on the third employer, as they tend to buy each other out regularly), and I like to think I'm very good at it. There isn't anyone else who does what I do, which makes me the expert by default. But I'm still a contractor, no matter how much I know and how good I am. My Pentagon access badge is pink in color, to distinguish me at a glance from Federal employees, whose badges are white. I'm excluded from some meetings because of the perception that I might misuse the information to which I am exposed for the unfair advantage of my company. I'm referred to jocularly as a Beltway Bandit, shamelessly feeding at the public trough. The term contractor covers a multitude of sinners, as it were.

The fact is, though, that your government couldn't function without us. The more Big Government is viewed as the enemy and is cut back for political reasons, the more contractors will need to be hired to do the jobs thus lost. The budget cutters won't tell you this, though. It's easier just to show how well they've cut back on the size of the government, and to castigate the faceless contractors who are running amok.

Back in 1992, William Greider wrote a marvelous book titled Who Will Tell the People: the Betrayal of American Democracy. You won't find the word contractor in this book, because contractors weren't an issue yet back then, but what you will find is an angry, well-argued and -documented tirade against the corruption of our democratic processes that continues to this day. That the book was written in 1992, and that many of the corrupting influences Mr Greider explores are still with us, and worse than before, ought to give us pause. Read this book, get mad, and vote. Hold your elected officials to account. And remember that there are over 300 million Americans, and not all of them care about the same things you do...don't be a person blindly focused on a single issue, no matter how important it is to you. Vote locally, but think nationally.

Next year's presidential election will be the most important one in decades. The fact that we are presented with a slate of candidates of ... well ... modest capabilities is unfortunate, but we are faced with the candidates our corrupted political system has presented to us. We have to do the best with what we have. Learn all you can, cast your vote wisely, and don't disengage once you leave the polling place. If you don't hold your elected officials to account, they'll continue to do what they've done all along, which is ignore you. Don't let it happen.

But what do I know? I'm just a contractor.

Ewwwww.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo