Lawmakers want delay on permit for piping oil beneath river

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Kingston natives Leann and Aran Campas hold Tattoos for Life event at The Foundry Tattoo in Bloomsburg to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

<p>Politicians are famous for promises. And during campaigns, they are even more famous for overpromising. Candidates claim that if they get elected, they will solve all the nation&#8217;s woes.</p><p>Over the past few election cycles, Americans have become very disenchanted, and even indignant, over all the unfilled promises and dashed hopes of both the Republican and Democratic establishments.</p><p>This is now playing out in the presidential primaries as voters are once again searching for something or someone new in which to place their faith. The &#8220;outsiders&#8221; of Donald Trump on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side are seizing on this voter sentiment and are garnering unprecedented excitement. Trump is even capturing victories, one after another.</p><p>The great irony of this election cycle, however, is that the two candidates who are generating the most enthusiasm are the very ones who are overpromising the voters, as never before in history. They are promising grandiose, and often vague, answers that are all but impossible in the American political system and culture. Trump would no more be able to ban all Muslims from the country or deport all undocumented people or make Mexico build a wall as Sanders would be able to grant free college or enact a single-payer health care system or end all of the influence of Wall Street.</p><p>There is a basic lesson of American civics being missed by the voters and, perhaps even, the candidates. The Founding Fathers created a system of government that ensures that change occurs, if at all, through slow, incremental steps with a lot of compromise. They were afraid of drastic changes from one administration to another, so power was widely dispersed among several institutions, not just centered in the presidency.</p><p>So no matter who becomes president, even the simplest promises are often difficult to deliver. For outsiders with no government experience, that is even truer.</p><p>If the American public is fed up with the same old broken promises and is looking for real change, then perhaps they are better off seeking systemic reforms in U.S. government rather than continually putting their hopes in overpromising candidates, including those who claim the outsider mantle. Ending political gerrymandering and enacting congressional term limits could be good places to start.</p><p>Otherwise, the American electorate is just going to be disappointed election after election after election &#8230;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Jeff Brauer</p><p>Contributing columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Jeff Brauer is a political science professor at Keystone College in La Plume.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Jeff Brauer: Sorry, America, but presidential candidates’ promises far exceed what they can deliver