Throw them all out
by Greg Krehbiel on 2 January 2013
We need an option where we can fire every member of Congress and prohibit all of them from ever serving in elected office again.
They’ve put the whole country through all this drama about the “fiscal cliff” for all these months — for what? For a stupid agreement that doesn’t really do anything anyway.
I’m tempted to say “to address a problem they created,” but that’s not quite true. They created a deadline to address a real problem, and then they failed to meet their own deadline.
I realize it’s not fair to blame every person in Congress for the dysfunction of the entire institution, but I don’t really care. Businesses close even though hard-working people are doing their jobs, so I don’t see why we can’t close down Congress when the whole institution becomes useless.
These guys are (collectively) clowns and they are toying with us. They’re not doing their job and they should be fired — if not tarred and feathered.
Our so-called “elected representatives” quibble and argue and fight over the dust on the scales and expect us to reckon that as “doing something” about the country’s finances.
Incumbents have far too many advantages, and it tips the playing field too far in favor of the establishment. We need some way to balance the system. Some way to recall them.
Elections aren’t doing it. The ability to recall a Congressman isn’t enough. We need a “throw them all out” option. Perhaps it should be a special election on off years. If “throw them all out” gets 65 percent of the vote, they’re all gone and the state legislatures get to replace them until the next election.
The problem is that would require a constitutional amendment, which would have to pass Congress. They’d never vote for it.
-- 2013-01-02 » Greg Krehbiel
2 January 2013 @ 1:25 pm
Looks to me that the two most serious problems are Senate rules that can be abused to allow a single Senator to block anything at all unless there is a 60 vote supermajority, and gerrymandered House district lines.
Gerrymandering allows the overall representation to be, first, inconsistent with overall voter patterns, and second, completely complacent once office is achieved.
It’s remarkable that Tea Party primary challenges have upset that second apple cart, but not in a very constructive way.
2 January 2013 @ 1:32 pm
I think the second is the larger problem because it directly interferes with the public’s ability to provide a check on Congressional power. Gerrymandering is one of the tricks incumbents use to stay in office.
How do we roll back incumbent privileges when it’s the incumbents who would have to do the rolling back?