Congress Represents Congress (Opinion)
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The Congress - Our democratically elected candidates of choice, who manage to get our attention, wow us with big words and great personalities, and get us believing that through them a significant paradigm shift is on the way. These men and women who should be the major mouthpiece of the people, presenting our case in the various houses - have for far too long derailed off course. Not just by a bit, but by a mile.
It is so frustrating to see a bill with absolutely no relevance with the current situation of things, or worse, one that actually works in contrary to the citizens who elected them. It tends to occur quite frequently and the opinions of the majority are blatantly ignored by these representatives under the guise of 'knowing better' than those who sent you there in the first place.
It makes no sense of course, for representatives to simply abandon their obligations or ignore the will of the voters without a sufficient reason. So why then does this occur? The answere, I think, lies in interest groups and influencers.
These small but powerful groups and individual act like puppet masters in the control of representatives. They basically detect the direction of a lawmakers tenure. Owing to their small size, it may be easy to arrive at an assumption that they cannot possibly hold such power - this is quite wrong, and the answer is in how they support.
These groups for the most part have a lot of money to spend. Let us not forget that money wins elections, until proven irrefutably otherwise. It also creates an avenue for some unscrupulous lawmakers to enrich themselves.
Expecting a change from this chaotic routine is at best, a dream. This is because of the overtly expensive nature of our electoral campaigns. Perhaps reducing the 'cost of democracy' may set the tone for some actual lawmaking to begin.
This is my take. Let's compare notes.
In representatives systems of mass politics, politicians must develop a political machine to achieve elected office and political ends. If member of a political faction, a politician will have the backing of the party machine during elections and in partisan politics. But when in office and particularly in inter-party politics, he must rely on his own wherewithal, in other words his personal political machine.
The lobbyists with whom everybody nowadays is concerned it seems grease the wheels of politics with their money, yes, and by mediation, connecting the politicking of representatives to the enactment of policy. Indeed, little would happen in Congress without lobbyists because the inter and intra party politics would force either a perpetual 'political deadlock' or internecine battle within the political sphere.
Now if you want Congress to be prolific with legislating then criticizing lobbyists is the last thing you should wish to do. But even if you think Congress a busybody obstructing and weighing down civil life, you would not concur with today's criticism of lobbyists. The criticism is misplaced. The political machines and the representative structures are the principal problem. Lobbyists, who fill the chasm growing between politicking and policy and thus keep the political system operating in a manner, are a symptom.
If you want to blow up the system, by all means attack lobbying. Remove lobbyists and the rickety Jenga tower crashes down.
Personally I think more will happen under Trump than the normal politicians. They will say anything to get their seat and once that has been achieved they don't really care. It happens way too often.
The Americans may not feel like Trump is right but the outsiders looking in actually would like someone who puts the country first. It's a breath of fresh air. Look what he has just done for the steel industry. he is trying to protect the American industry and their jobs by putting excessive duties on imports. he promised he would do it and he has. If other countries did the same and looked after their backyard first then maybe corruption and unemployment would disappear.
I don't quite agree with everything Trump does, but yeah I feel the state of politics has gone from bad to worse. We now have attention seekers, butt kissers and jokers parading as congressmen
Also don't agree with everything he does or stands for. I think it will be good for the next election though as they will have to better what he is doing now. Politicians always lie to get to power and then let most of their supporters down. I used to think Obama was good until you realize how soft he really was especially on the trade deals.China was making a mockery of the States and caused massive job losses exporting and flooding the country with their cheap and nasty products with minimal duties.
You're absolutely right! Today's political culture is uncivilized and growing daily worse.
I think how Nixon's perjury during the impeachment hearings would not even be scandalous today. I couldn't imagine him ever stepping down. And Truman felt he had to have congressional approval to go to war, even though he could have easily done without it; he was the last president to feel that way.
There has been a continuous devolution of the democratic republic. This was observed since the early years of the country. In the last half century at latest, however, I think Socrates' theory that democracies inevitably deteriorate into oligarchies than into tyrannies until violent revolution resurrects democracy and the cycle continues, looks like it might really be accurate.
Curated for #informationwar (by @openparadigm)
Relevance: Taking Congress To Task
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