More on "Riders"

As I mentioned the other day, I find the whole notion of "rider" bills to be a perversion of the legislative process. I'm apparently not alone in this:

From dictionary.com, a rider is "a clause, usually having little relevance to the main issue, that is added to a legislative bill." One would be hard pressed to find an issue that has less to do with port security than online gambling. Riders are a sneaky, underhanded way of passing legislation that wouldn't stand up to a vote on its own and they are used by almost every politician in Congress. As an individual bill, the online gambling ban was having trouble getting to the floor in the Senate due to lack of interest (although it passed the House with overwhelming support from both parties). Instead of accepting defeat, Bill Frist, Enemy to Democracy, decided in his infinite arrogance and tyranny to force this bill on us through a rider. So now we have a law passed that was unable to garner the support of a majority in Congress, much less a majority of the American people. Allowing ridiculous riders like this to pass in such a fashion is undemocratic, unfair and absurd. If tyranny of the majority weren't bad enough, we have this whole system in place that allows and encourages the passing of laws that even the majority won't pass! The worst part is that almost everyone in this country is aware of this problem and chooses to not do anything about it.

The issue of riders is one that almost everyone agrees needs fixing, so why is no one motivated to do anything about it? This is partly due to the fact that most riders are minor spending pork riders rather than big liberty eroding ones such as this latest, and people care less about such. This is also partly due to ignorance and a lack of understanding by some voters on how often this occurs and how it undermines democracy. Ultimately though, the real problem here is the two party system. Every person who votes for their party no matter what wrongs they do just to keep "that other party" out of office is enabling these politicians to get away with this crap. Every person who votes for a Republican or a Democrat rather than a preferred third party candidate for fear of "wasting their vote" is enabling these politicians to get away with this crap. Stop enabling politicians to violate our democracy like this, America!