Previously posted August 2008: It still applies.
Forget who is president and speaker today. Ask yourself this question about our country. Regardless who the speaker and the president are at any time, should the Speaker of the House of Representatives have more power than the President of the United States, under our form of Government? Remember, we have no prime minister elected by a parliament.
President Abraham Lincoln may have been wrong when he ended the Gettysburg Address with “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Can we honestly say that our government is a government “of the people”? No, it is a government where legislation is passed in the Senate without a vote – unanimous consent, where Federal agencies create rules that through a serpentine string of empowerments, agencies make law, and where unelected judges regularly make law from the bench.
Can we say government is “by the people”? No, because the rules are stacked against an incumbent loosing his or her job in Congress. We regularly return the Congressional incumbent to office more than 90% of the time, despite abysmal approval ratings.
How about “for the people”? Look around, your Representative is for him or herself and those who have wined and dined them and provided hefty campaign donations.
I have written before on this issue about how we can re-establish the tenets of this 18th century Republic. The founding fathers were smart people who built safeguards into the Constitution to prevent a government WITHOUT the people. Yet this is what we have today, mostly because the founding fathers did not foresee two events:
- money, tons of money, influencing Congressional Representatives who are not of enough character to serve for the people and the nation, but only serve for themselves.
- our States willingly giving up their collective right to steer this nation through the Senate. The Founding Fathers gave the States special powers to hold the Federal Government in check, and in 1913 the states voted to give up that power.
We have no energy policy and a Congress that will not sit and debate what is good for the country. 435 Representatives in Congress cannot vote due to one person, the Speaker. This is because over the years rules have been put in place which gradually took away Democracy for totalitarianism – it is all about power – absolute power, and we know what absolute power does. Rules were also established in the Senate fostering gridlock. Measures can pass with a majority vote, but no vote can take place without a super majority of 60%. In the Senate any one member can block legislation. In either House, the Speaker and the Majority Leader can bring the country to its collective knees.
How do we set Congress right and make it responsive to the people again?
- Start with pulling those TV cameras out of the Houses of Congress – they just foster pandering and long winded speeches with no one present in the chamber to listen.
- More importantly, take the money out of the Congressional campaign. Only allow campaign contributions from individuals who primarily reside in the Congressional District where the race is taking place. This will remove key outside influence’s on Congresspersons. This will require a Constitutional Amendment.
- Return the election of Senators to the States’ Legislatures by removing direct election of Senators. The structure and the power of the Senate was designed for use by the States to control the Federal Government. The Senate’s special powers would not have been granted in the Constitution if the Senators were to be elected directly by the people. Repeal the Seventeenth Amendment and give power back to the states to control these people. This method will prevent the empires built in the Senate upon service of eighteen to thirty-six years. Right now the Senate membership consists of people with incredible power to steer this nation, again it is almost totalitarian in nature.
Read more about both these initiatives at: Why Is The Congress The Way It IS?
So if you are wondering why Nancy Pelosi, a far left member of her Party, who is definitely not a mainstream Democratic Party player, can prevent the will of the People, wielding more power that the President – he only has veto power that can be overridden. She has the totalitarian power to never let a bill she does not agree with see the light of day. This does not sound like government of the people, by the people, and for the people, to me.
We can stay with this non-performing status quo or change it. If you want real change, do not vote for the Congressional incumbent in your state’s primary and in the general election, and push your State Legislature for the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment and for the passage of a Congressional campaign contribution control amendment. States have the power to seek a Constitutional Convention and to ratify changes to the Constitution.
By turning over representation in the House more often, the members will not be able to build formidable power bases and the Speaker position will be more fluid, permitting less power to accumulate in that role, as the role changes more often.
Two good ways to take things back – All Presidential and Congressional election campaigns are publicly funded with a finite cap. The campaign interval, like in the UK, is strictly limited, something like 6-8 weeks prior to Election Day. That takes the big money and long windedness out of it and maybe a newcomer could be elected.