It is not difficult to see how most Americans look at Congress. Whether in public opinion polls or person-in-the-street interviews, citizens regard the national legislature, the way they were reluctant parents: they know they have to live with them but they hope that as little contact as possible have. Perhaps Congress is liable to feel this way? Year after year, Congress seems hopelessly stuck on issues of direct relevance to the country. Global warming? It will take more evidence, perhaps deep in the streets of coastal cities. How about reforming our complex system, special interest focused on control, which remains a national shame – probably the worst in the industrialized world? It is never a priority. Health care for the millions of uninsured Americans? It seems to always be on the agenda of the next decade or later. A balanced budget, so that people could begin to cut trillions of dollars of debt before it consumes our ability to fully meet the growing needs of a growing population? But the interests of their programs for pets, cost business subsidies and tax breaks – and they finance campaigns of members of Congress. It would also mean disappointing to have developed the legions of highly paid lobbyists who have close ties with longtime members of Congress. The lobbying campaign to provide much money, and that the laws of ethics when they find many wars reward their legislative friends.
Instead, positive action to see that Americans have seen title after title of the Congress of corruption. Whatever the old fashioned sleaze influence peddling and bribery scandals staff reflects old vices – the smell of a sense of duty. Other frauds Congress reflects the modern forms of dishonesty. Members, in collusion with their allies in the diet of redistricting cooked books, with sophisticated computer programs to district boundaries in a way that they almost never lose re-election may be drawn. The laws of campaign finance are very aware of the incumbents in the direction inclined.
It is unfair and cynical about all this as an inevitable consequence of the destructive power to dismiss a good power. What we do not know enough about the effects that have rules and structures of American constitutional system for the promotion of corruption. Some fraud is likely, under any regime, and as I will explain each term will probably not be popular with the public most of the time. But the breadth and depth of corrupt practices over time can be reduced through sensible reforms. To the extent that Congress is unpopular because of the injustice and inefficiency, the suggestions here can make a difference.
Somehow, we may pity the poor Congress. It is now popular and the store has never been popular for short periods of national crisis. From the start, Americans instinctively distrust the legislature and it was fun. One of the first song summed up by the people.
From these funny and silly fools Hardy
Some mules antics and pragmatic
Some accept the bid, tools,
This, they formed the Congress!
If Jupiter decided to send a curse
And all the sorrows of life for repeat
Not plague, not famine, but much worse –
We struck a congress.
These verses were addressed to the Continental Congress of 1776! But nothing much has changed except the vernacular and modern Americans have been able to recite the same at home similar direction to go.
The reasons for the dissatisfaction of the public semi-permanent with the Congress is only too apparent. No. 535, the committee may act with diligence, or appear particularly organized, with clear legal guidelines is the independence of elected members of Congress, along each of them a huge ego. The division of the legislature into two separate units, the House and Senate, creates more discord and often contributes to the chaotic image projects Congress. The legislature is also elected district and state, not the nation as a whole, narrow minded that their concerns often appear in the national interest in the welter of special interests lost hard to be heard. In addition, be involved with so many members of Congress, at least a few dozen are kept at a given moment, scratches legal or ethical. The bad news, messages that meet most of the coverage devoted to crime Legislature to Congress, the public a distorted picture of the composition of the industry. And lead us not forget that the best metaphor for each legislator to the sausage factory. People can eat like tasty products, but only if they saw it done. Reporters do not cover the sausage factory, but they follow every jot and dot the legislative process – and there is rarely a pretty sight. Blending all these factors, it is easy to understand why Americans hate Congress. The only exceptions are brief moments of national crisis like Watergate or 9 / 11, when the instinct to “gather around the flag” includes support of virtually all U.S. government agencies or special moments of optimism, as the opening day of a new presidency, or victory in war.
While recognizing the merits of much criticism, should be also noted that Congress works much like the founders intended. The legislature was, and is designed so that the “ineffective” elements of the federal government, the slowdown of the “effective” branch, the presidency. The director general is so everything must be done immediately and on his way. Congress slows the president’s policies and forces through the prism of diversity of opinion in the country, groups and interests. Finally, Congress is very close to the president or the judiciary to reflect the country’s wealth of talent – by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, occupation and ideology. Although much remains to be done, has made great progress in the diversification of Congress in the last half-century. For example, (only a handful of women and minorities in both chambers in the 1960s an average of fifteen years by the Congress during this decade has been), but the Congress elected in 2006 was eighty-seven women ( Senators six, seventy-one members of the House), forty-African – Americans (a senator, forty House members), six Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (two senators, four members of the House) and house for each member of the Indians and Indians. The cacophony of voices in Congress is not harmonious, and will never be smoothly orchestrated by anyone, but how could it be otherwise in a country that is decentralized so rare and decidedly different?
Nobody should ever touch these aspects of legal representation, except to strengthen them. To achieve this, I propose a model of the founders of the Congress building in several respects. First, we need a larger, more representative of the U.S. Senate that best fits a massive population of the twenty-first century America increased, with a new class of senators, whose responsibility belongs to the national interest The first lawyer, rather than the needs of different States. Secondly, Parliament must be reformed because the extreme partisan redistricting has virtually drained the engine of strong competition in the elections. It is time for a new era of real campaign in the House, so that the House will take up his duties as a federal agency closest to the current thinking of the American people again. In addition, the idea must be the founder of the new expansion of the house, with population growth, so that every member of Congress in May represents a smaller constituency, and personal relationships with more people. Finally, election periods and schedules for the House S. u. of Representatives and the Senate must be reoriented, so it’s a better way, the diversity of Congress can be used with the executive for constructive cooperation – in the interest of the public policy of healthy people. Serve Taken together, this re-energize the reform agenda not only Congress but the American government and politics in general.
Copyright © 2007 Larry J. Sabato
The above is an excerpt from the book “A More Perfect Constitution
Larry J. Sabato
Published by Walker & Company, October 2007, $ 25. 95US; 978-0-8027-1621-7
Copyright © 2007 Larry J. Sabato
Author
The founder and director of the internationally renowned center for politics at the University of Virginia, Larry J. Sabato has dozens of national television and radio programs, including 60 minutes, published today Hardball, and Nightline. Rhodes Scholar, he earned his doctorate in politics from Oxford and taught at UVA since 1978. The author of numerous articles and twenty previous books, he coanchored the BBC coverage of the 2006 election. In 2002, the University of Virginia gave him its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award.