Thoughts from Frank J. on the vermin that perennially infest the nation’s capital:
Anyway, I guess the whole idea for how our country would work was that we’d basically govern ourselves and hire some people — our representative and senators — to represent us in the federal government, as none of us have time for that. And since we’d all elect them together out of our entire population, we’d pick only the best people to do it.
But here’s the problem. Who are the people who tend to run for political office? Political office is hard to get and takes a lot of effort, so only ambitious people seek it. That wouldn’t be so bad if we got smart/ambitious — and the useful kind of smart, not the pointless write-a-doctoral-thesis-on-transgender-Native-American-pottery “smart.”
But what do ambitious, capable people do in this country? They start their own businesses and lead successful lives comfortably away from the fickleness of the ballot box. So that just leaves the people who are ambitious but useless and just love the thought of being able to meddle in all the useful things everyone else is doing. And then the whole election process, where the politicians constantly lie and change their positions on issues to keep their jobs, tends to weed out the people who aren’t also sociopaths. So the system we have has basically set us up to be governed by ambitious, useless sociopaths who love to meddle in everything actual contributors to society are doing. So lawyers, for the most part.
And when you put these people in charge, of course they’re going to just try to grab more power so they can interfere even more, hence the steady bloating of government we’ve seen throughout American history. So what do we do? Change the system to make sure we get good, qualified people who aren’t arrogant weirdos to be our legislators?
Good luck with that. Fortunately, he has a better solution. They won’t like it, though.
Anyway, I guess the whole idea for how our country would work was that we’d basically govern ourselves and hire some people — our representative and senators — to represent us in the federal government, as none of us have time for that.
I doubt that ever was the intention of those in charge, even in 1776. It may have been what they told everybody, some, or even many, of whom may have believed it.
I look at elected officials as savants of a sort. They are very good at getting their constituents to vote for them. What their constituents value is what elected officials are good at projecting. Like all savants, however, additional and useful capabilities may or may not be present. It depends on how savvy and value driven are the constituency. That may help explain Dick Durban and Maxine Waters. Of course, there is also the additional problem of deteriorating integrity in the election process, ergo, Al Franken and maybe Lisa Murkowski.
I haven’t read the whole story (I know, need to), but I’ve heard the premise that’s quoted many times in 1994, and the fix was to be term limits. Cap the power you can obtain, then there will be less desire to expand it and more importantly distort principle to maintain over a lifetime. For example, I’m sure Chuck Rangel was a good representative for his district for the first couple of terms. Maybe even the first decade. But as he stayed in longer, he became more corrupted by his power.
Alas, the GOP pushed term limits in the contract for America, and many, when they got in, ignored the promises. So yeah, good luck with that.
Henry Hyde, who didn’t need the Contract to get re-elected, helped scuttle the congressional term limits bill in the House, the bastard. A few did choose to abide by term limits voluntarily — but after they were gone all that was left were the ones who didn’t.
But now Hyde is gone, so maybe it would be worth another try — provided the new majority got elected on that promise.
Which won’t happen this time around.
The solution is not term limits. The solution is the same one the founders put forth… an educated electorate. Since the media does the educating that’s where the focus needs to be.
…and grade school to which the socialists have focused.
We have term limits, they’re called elections. And yes, they do require the electorate to pay attention, something that the powers that wannabe have been working overtime to keep from happening for decades. We only have ourselves to blame. Fortunately, it’s not yet a done deal, though close. A vote for any donk congresscritter is a vote for Pelosi, likewise a vote for any donk senate candidate is a vote for Dingy Harry.
Lawyers should not make laws. It is an obvious conflict of inerest. Membership in the Bar ought to mean automatic disqualification from holding any political office.