A reader can’t stomach the current politicians with regard to our attitudes:
I disagree, strongly. Yes, the letter does what you purport, mostly, and ends in some pretty slimy pro-gun sentiment. But you are extremely far too generous to sitting Congress members. Virtually all but a very few deserve every brickbat this letter delivers. It was not always that way, which is how we survived this long.
Yes, we’ve improved upon the system designed by the Founding Fathers, but we’ve also damaged and diminished it as well. It had faulty design problems from the start (e.g. voting rights distribution, technological changes) which are in desperate need of correction.
It’s the career civil servants, inertia and resting on the system of the past that keeps it going. If we really had to rely on Congress in the past 10 to 20 years in a serious way, we’d be screwed. In fact, we are pretty much in a big fat mess right now, much of it thanks to them.
My problem with the letter is that it doesn’t name names, it doesn’t make credible allegations. The attack is not on the current Congress, which would be far more reasonable, but instead it’s making accusations against the very structure of the institute itself.
Look, our representatives are those that we picked, and if they are not up to snuff, then we need to get a better quality of person to run and then elect them. To some extent, the current state of affairs is the result of a planned attack on those structures by conservative media outlets such as Limbaugh, and have resulted in such noxious, toxic, or pretentious personalities as Hastert, Gingrich, Coleman, DeLay, Jordan, Gohmert, Ryan, McConnell, and a number of others[1].
But the hidden message of the letter is to permanently disaffect ourselves from Congress as an institution. If you look throughout the history of Congress, they often squabble, their issues are often provincial, and ignorance and ideology often gets in the way of getting things done. But the great advantage they also bring is to blunt the decisive mistake often made by the princes of monarchies and the leaders of autocracies. For all that Congress can be discouraging in any given period, at least its sheer weight means that it doesn’t often destroy the good quickly, but instead so slowly that it can often be stopped before the damage becomes irrepairable.
It is, in my view, almost certainly part of a long term plan to cripple one of the most important institutions in America by making it attractive to the second- and third-rate person, while discouraging the competent and self-sacrificing from running, and defeating them when they do run. Taking advantage of the resentment of those impacted by Federalism, and spreading revised history such as that the Civil War was about States’ rights rather than the poison of slavery, we’re now faced with a core GOP made up of extremists, and independents who are deeply suspicious of the Democrats, who have partly brought it on themselves through a variety of mistakes.
My reader sees a Congress full of dubious personalities, with which I agree, but I see a letter aimed at the institution, not its current occupants.
And, since we’re talking about Congress, I found this report interesting. From The New York Times:
Trying to ease gridlock in Congress, a bipartisan group of frustrated House members is coming forward with a rules overhaul intended to give rank-and-file lawmakers more say.
The proposal, to be formally unveiled Wednesday by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, also seeks to rein in hard-right Republican forces in the chamber that have wielded significant influence over the majority party in recent years. …
The rules proposal was drafted over months of negotiation among the 48 members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, which is equally split between Republicans and Democrats. It would institute new standards for the automatic consideration of legislation with strong bipartisan support. The authors believe the plan, which has the backing of at least 75 percent of the group’s membership, would foster more bipartisanship and incite debate on major issues that are being sidelined by political considerations.
“Due to the House floor being controlled by a select few, most members of Congress are not able to bring their ideas and proposals to the House floor for a fair vote that would allow us to begin solving some of the most contentious issues facing our country today,” said Representative Tom Reed, Republican of New York and a chairman of the group.
The fact that they recognize there are problems and are looking for process solutions must surely count for a few points in their favor. There’s still the problem of team politics, of course, but the threat that their own proposals will not receive any consideration has to be a problem for Republicans (and Democrats!) with little political traction within Congress itself.
1And no doubt a few Democrats as well, although I’m hesitant to pick any of them as they are often the targets of professional & misleading smear campaigns; the Republicans, on the other hand, distinguished themselves through direct actions as reported by reliable media.
