How To Fix A Broken Congress?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, General Politics
What else? Bi-partisanship. And while many poo-poo this as being weak, it’s really one of the only things that keeps this country from swinging too far in either direction.
Maybe that’s why David Broder is talking about a new paper from Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute entitled, “The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track.”:
They write as two men who love Congress and admire many who work there. But they say that “over the past two decades, we have become more and more dismayed at the course of Congress. Our unease began with the Democrats in charge of both houses, when a combination of their arrogance after thirty-plus years in the majority and the increasingly shrill frustration of Republicans who chafed under their seemingly permanent minority status was creating strains different and more ominous than any we had seen before.”When the Republicans took over in 1994, they promised needed reforms, “but it did not take long before those promises went by the boards, and practices that were more unsettling than those of the Democrats became the norms.” Rules were bent, votes held open, committees sidestepped and communications between the parties cut off — all in the interests of “moving” the GOP agenda and the president’s program, once George Bush arrived in the White House.
The result, they write, has been the increasing enfeeblement of the legislative branch, its abandonment of its proper constitutional role as the first branch of government — and the loss of both pride and a sense of institutional responsibility.
The Democrats have a very unique opportunity come this fall. If they are able to retake the Congress, they can claim the middle again. My hope is that they’ll be smart and do so, but I’m certainly not holding my breath. But even if they don’t, I think this rising discontent should be a signal to all lawmakers that it’s time to quit being so decidedly partisan and start getting down to the business of making this country better.
A final note from Broder:
But a new election means new faces — and possibly a new spirit on Capitol Hill. Mann and Ornstein have a number of specific changes to suggest in congressional rules and procedures — and in lobbying regulations. But their main point is simple. We need an infusion of men and women committed to Congress as an institution — to engaging with each other seriously enough to search out and find areas of agreement and to join hands with each other to insist on the rights and prerogatives of the nation’s legislature, not make it simply an echo chamber of presidential politics.
Yes, yes…a thousand times YES!
This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 and is filed under Elections, General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:31 am
…start getting down to the business of making this country better.
From what I’ve read, your defenition of “better” is the same as my definition of worse. And therein lies the problem.
IMHO, not doing anything at all is better than doing the wrong thing.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
The biggest thing we need to fix Congress is to remove ALL money from lobbying. If I’m planning on asking a congressman for legislation, I shouldn’t also be the one who provided half of his campaign warchest. No matter how much someone protests their moral superiority and invincible detachment, they know that if they don’t feed the beast it will eat them and replace them with someone else.
Wouldn’t it be great if Congress actually did what’s best for the people of their district, rather than just for the lobbyists who bought them?
September 5th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Well, tell me what that is and we can compare notes.
And sleipner…agreed. The money is choking democracy, but what to do?
September 5th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Yes … get the money and perks away from lobbying. A year or two ago someone suggested raising the pay to about 350 k per year. I’m against that … I’m sure I can find 500 honest hard working people that would take the 150 k per year that they get now. Congress does the work of the people, why don’t we tell them to get back to real solutions to the real PRESSING problems we face today … not what we are going to see in the next 60+ days.
September 6th, 2006 at 11:07 am
It seems to me that a large number of Americans agree that lobbying is causing more problems than it’s fixing. A large number of Americans are also complaing about illegal immigration. However, all complaints seem to fall on deaf ears. I don’t think the Congress (or the president) is listening any more. I think they stopped many years ago.
I think in 60 days, some seats will change hands, and there may even be a shift in the balance of power. But nothing will really change, because the primariers are over, and we’re pretty much putting the same bums back in place. The chance to send a message is past.
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Got a few ideas on fixing the problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Winnjohnston
-winn