My New Conviction

I've always had an interest in the way our government is supposed to work. Along with that, I’ve always enjoyed learning more about our history. Most of us start out learning about our country in elementary school where the concepts are simple and easy to understand. As we grow older, the same material takes on more complex and nuanced characteristics. For instance, we might have a fairly simple notion of our Revolutionary War in grade school, learning that the whole matter was about a well-spring of folks who just wanted freedom from the King of England- because freedom is a good thing. As we grow older we learn that much of the discontent was centered on the idea of unfair taxation of the colonies. And as we grow older still (and more sophisticated in our thinking and discoveries) we discover the details about how the Revolution was primarily a movement by rich landholders in the colonies who saw their financial holdings being threatened. We discover that the ideas of the Enlightenment in France became a philosophical backdrop for a revolution that was opposed by nearly 80% of the colonists- it gets more complicated  and interesting the further we dig. The point being that our ability to learn and assimilate new and more complex information is an ever changing and evolving process- as it should be.

As you and I witness the continuing ineffectiveness of our government over the last couple of decades, and most particularly over the last five years, I’m coming to a new point of view- a new conviction- about how we select our Representatives and Senators. About twenty-five years ago a movement began around the country to impose Term-Limits on members of Congress. There was a growing feeling that many in Congress were so entrenched and isolated from the people that we needed a new law to get them out of office. Back then I was absolutely against the movement. I was against term-limits for two reasons. The first was that I believed voters should always have the last say on who they elected. I believed that if a state or congressional district felt they should oust an ineffective representative they should do it at the ballot box- and only there. The second reason was that I had faith in our national institutions of government. I believed that the Senate and the House of Representatives had good reasons for establishing leadership roles based on seniority. I believed then that the seniority system in Congress actually helped produce statesmen.

I know there have always been scoundrels and charlatans in government. Our history has many examples of those who went to Congress only to enrich themselves or to enjoy the benefits of their status. Perhaps I'm still a bit nostalgic, but I believe there was a time when true statesmen emerged too. And for all the corruption that seems to follow our politics, the old system actually produced great people who went to Congress with the best intentions of governing. Some left an indelible mark on the nation: Sam Rayburn  is the most influential Speaker in our history; the great Senators include Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Robert Taft, Robert LaFollette, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Arthur Vanderberg, and Edward Kennedy- to name a few. These are people who did not necessarily represent my thinking in all things, but nonetheless provided an important influence on the direction of the nation, and for that reason they gave me hope that our grandest institutions of government were worth preserving without the need for term-limits. I have now lost hope in that notion.

Today, we see a Congress and a Senate inhabited by those seem to have only one interest: getting re-elected! There was a time when true statesmen based there re-election hopes on presenting a list of legislative accomplishments to their constituents. There was a time when the measure of a Senator or Congressperson was what they did- now that measure is what they mean to “the base”. Our politics have become so polarized  and extreme that elections are no longer decided in November- they are decided in the primaries by small, dedicated groups of political activists who control gerrymandered districts such that the outcome of general elections are a foregone conclusion. Lest you think this is just a rant by a frustrated political junkie, let me a give a few examples to support my new conviction about our Congress:

-We need a new Immigration policy/law. Today’s Congress is unwilling to tackle the immigration problem because members from both parties are literally afraid to offend their “base”. The issue is complex and multi-faceted yet nothing we hear on this subject begins to deal with the real issues.  Instead we are told that a “gang of eight” Senators will decide the matter. The problem is that even a small group of eight can’t agree on what they have decided. In truth, the entire Republican Party has deferred to a tea-party Republican with a Spanish sir-name (Rubio) because they won’t own up to their wish to do nothing except complain about border security- while relishing the unspoken truth that they want a cheap labor force to pick our fruit and vegetables for the giant agri-business interests they represent. All the while they are careful to pander to the small group of folks in the home district who might be offended if they appear to be reasonable about the "race" issue. Bottom line: no meaningful reform will take place.

-We need gun legislation. In even the face of true horror in Newtown and overwhelming popular support for some form of gun control legislation our Congress cannot take an action that 90% of Americans want. It took the Senate over a week to even decide to debate the matter, and they only did that because the parents of dead children literally stared them down and shamed them in to it. After all that, one third of the Senate still voted no to even debate it. Of course the Senate then congratulated itself on its magnanimous efforts. After all of that, the Senate couldn’t pass the least intrusive element of a solution. Of course they gave themselves permission to require 60 votes for anything to happen-practically guaranteeing failure . It probably doesn’t matter though- the House would have stopped anything the Senate might have passed. The gun lobby (NRA) is so powerful among a small group of Americans that they can intimidate the great and powerful Congress of the United States. On the day a “gang of two” Senators announced a compromise between the two of them, not one Senator would even stand in the same room with them. Republicans didn’t want to offend the NRA and Democrats in “Red” states wouldn’t risk the taint of "gun control". 30,000 people die from gun violence in this country every year and our Senate couldn't muster the smallest measure of courage to curb it.  There are over 300,000,000 guns in this country- all owned by less than 35% of us. But a relatively small group will push our cowardly Congress to another year of inaction. Shameful!!!

-We need equality in the workplace for women. Last week the leadership of the House of Representatives simply sat in an office at the Capital and decided they wouldn’t even put it up for a vote. Bottom line: there will be no action on equal pay for women for the next two years.

-We need a fiscal and economic plan for the country. For the first time in five years the Senate passed a budget resolution. Every House Republican vowed to vote against it. The House has passed several of Paul Ryan’s budget plans. They are so politically skewed and partial to the wealthy that they have no chance of ever being passed by the Senate- nor should they be. The lines are drawn and no one in the Congress will budge an inch. Most politicians understand the math but will stick to their entrenched doctrines about taxation and/or spending, and won’t even bother to appoint a conference committee to talk about it. But I assure you the members of Congress will ignore simple arithmetic if it means straying one centimeter to the right or left of their extreme ideological base. Bottom line: we have a stagnant economy that cries out for direction from government-but won’t get it. This is the reason the recession drags on!

-We need an energy and environmental policy. We need serious people who are able to see past the next fiscal quarter when it comes to developing an energy source for the future, AND we need that change to include environmental protections for the planet. The science is settled- our use of fossil fuels is damaging the planet and our ability to live on it much longer. Instead of acting like reasonable and informed people, many in Congress call it a hoax and keep pushing the “drill baby drill” position. That thinking is short sighted and dangerous but they all need oil money to fund those campaigns. So they deny their own “lying eyes” as they watch the polar ice caps melt and the weather patterns turn strangely hostile in front of them.  

It is no wonder the last Congress was the most inactive (fewest bills passed) and least effective in history. Nothing I've seen suggests this Congress will be any better.  My new conviction is to start over with a Congress that is term-limited, instead of a Congress populated by those looking for the government pension at the end of the rainbow while the majority of us suffer their foolishness. There is not one member of Congress that gives me faith in our current system. The lure of power and wealth has taken the place of the lure of patriotism. We are a long way from the founder’s vision of citizen-legislators. As much as I’d like to cling to my old convictions about the emergence of statesmen, I’m convinced it cannot happen unless we free the men and women in Congress to vote with their brains and their conscience because we remove the temptation to care only about continuous reelection bids. I’ve come to this new conviction because it is so blatantly obvious that our elected Congress and Senate can’t be trusted to look out for the greater good, instead of looking out for themselves. Sadly I say…

Thanks for looking in.