Open and honest discussion, being necessary for resolving matters of public policy, it's disheartening to know that our current system rarely allows such an exercise. Rules are broken, circumvented or just ignored.
Any pretext at checks and balances has melted away with most power being usurped by the Executive Branch. The US Constitution, if at all, is only used, as a prop.
We remember the classes about how an idea becomes a law. Today, nothing could be further from the truth. Bills are passed without being read or even voted on. Many votes are gotten by robotic phone calls and become law without recorded votes. Deal-making is the norm, with a multitude of sins hidden in comprehensive bills. Respect for the rule of law is missing at every level of society.
Congressional leadership is based on special interests, seniority and above all else, money. A congressman willing to go along can get along very well. Almost all return to civilian life, if they ever leave their DC home, far wealthier than the sum of multiplying their salary by the years served. Loopholes to get around a new law are created as the new law is being considered.
There's no difference between paying for Mafia protection and businesses and professions paying Congressional Leadership PACs for similar protection and consideration. Money rules and the rulers end up with the money. To find out if your congressman is part of this corruption, ask them if they have a leadership pac? This PAC allows them to spend contributions for personal pleasures. (ref. Extortion by Schweizer)
That most people rate Congress poorly while rating their own representative much higher is because we are not aware of all of the insider deals that they are a part of. This would explain why congressmen don't listen to their constituents. Once they are established and entrenched with solid financial underpinning, there's really no need to bother with constituents.
Our supposedly two-party system has become a one-party system with two branches. Their actions can only be described as theater, as we are bounced from one crisis to the next. One side has been completely captured by elitists of the far left while the other side, not wanting to give up their portion of the spoils and wealth, are simply trying to take us down the same course but at a slower and more comfortable pace. To resolve a crisis would be to eliminate an opportunity to enrich themselves.
Half of our electorate has been dumbed down and made completely dependent on some form of welfare. Others have become accustomed to "paying the piper" as a necessary cost of crony capitalism. A well-intentioned candidate has little or no chance to win against such odds. If by some miracle, he/she does manage to win, they are taught the rules of order, by their peers, upon arriving in Washington.
So, what's to be dome? At this point, not very much. The next steps, out of necessity, will require insight and courage that appears to be missing from most of our elected leaders. We can strike, remembering that to avoid taxes is legal while evading them is not. We can treat unjust laws and regulations as scoff laws (ex: jay-walking) and ignore them. Be willing to accept the consequences. A personal favorite is state action nullifying all federal laws and regulations that are not specifically authorized to the Federal Government by the Constitution. There are many areas where states can reassert their sovereignty and this would be the place to start the long road back to sanity.
Let's remove any mention of political parties from ballots. Allow people to run for office without party affiliation or petitions and open primaries requiring a simple majority. We could put controls on debt and taxes, qualifications to vote and an end gerrymandering to satisfy some perceived need for racial, gender, political or ethnic balance. Our system is so corrupt that the list of remedies is endless.
To take no action at all is to invite disaster. The birth of several realigned nation-states following our collapse is likely. A reread of the US Constitution is a great place to start.
Mike Armstrong STTB
Southern Reflections
