In American politics today, our collective energy is being drained at an alarming rate. The culprits? The vampires. Not the tasty ones like Count Chocula; rather, the blood sucking ones, like way too many members of our current Congress.
A vampire, by my definition, is someone who takes more energy than he gives. In the workplace, where they’re also a problem, I’ve learned to spot vampires quickly and remove them. In politics, they’re just as easy to identify but far harder to root out, and their damage is far greater.
Vampires in government come in various forms. Many are not believers in the vision of a better country; they’re content to tinker at the edges and do whatever they must to keep their jobs. They will go whichever way the wind blows, as long as it carries them to another term in office. Others excel at shooting down big plans and bold ideas, telling us why things can’t or shouldn’t be done without offering meaningful solutions of their own.
Some are slow-moving and low on energy and creativity. Others have boundless energy but spend it on distractions like launching and defending investigations, fighting over wedge issues that affect few Americans, and chasing political theater rather than measurable progress.
Some are masters of endless debate, chewing over the same issues long past the point of usefulness, mistaking motion for progress. They gossip. They maneuver. They focus more on partisan intrigue than on real-world problem solving. And perhaps worst of all, they are not in a rush. They behave as if time is an endless circle.
Here’s the test: after a leader speaks, do you feel inspired and ready to act, or do you feel drained and disillusioned? If it’s the latter, you’ve just encountered a vampire, and if we applied that standard across Washington, we might be left with only 15 or 20 true leaders in Congress.
Our country does not need life-takers but life-givers — leaders who bring energy to the hardest problems, who dream, who believe and who actually create and enact big solutions to big problems.
The first step is simple but not easy: Stop electing vampires. The second is even harder: Demand that the people we send to Washington give more than they take. No more small thinking dressed up as realism. The last step is the most challenging of all: We must impose term limits.
When we started out as a country, we had Founding Fathers who did not agree with each other on everything. But they did agree on some very important things. It never would have occurred to Thomas Jefferson or George Washington to hang out in Washington, D.C., for 20 or 30 years. They had the good sense and, frankly, good manners, not to overstay their welcome.
Vampires are thriving in American politics because politics has become a profession, whereas it was supposed to be a short-term public service. Without term limits, people with the same old ideas and energy-sucking ways can stay in D.C. indefinitely. And they do. Clearly, members of Congress are not motivated to vote themselves out of a job.
How can we pass term limits without Congress itself proposing a constitutional amendment? Two-thirds of state legislatures (34 out of 50) must pass resolutions calling for a convention where a constitutional amendment could be proposed.
The challenges we face — the national debt, economic inequality, education, public health, national security — are too urgent for leadership that runs on autopilot or thrives on division. We need public servants who treat time like the scarce resource it is and act with urgency on behalf of the real needs of Americans.
To win the future, America doesn’t need perfect leaders. It needs energetic, committed, life-giving ones. It needs people who push us to think bigger and act faster, even when it is not politically convenient.
The stakes are too high to let the vampires keep running the country. Urge your state legislature to pass a resolution calling for a convention on term limits. In the meantime, the next time you vote, ask yourself a simple question: Will this person give the nation more energy than they take from it? If not, guard your neck — and don’t vote for him or her.
Brian Hamilton is the nationally-recognized entrepreneur who founded Sageworks (now Abrigo), the country’s first fintech company. He is also the founder of the Brian Hamilton Foundation and Inmates to Entrepreneurs, where he serves as the leading voice on the power of ownership to transform lives.
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