Let me explain something. Congress does MOST of their work OUT of session. You can productively view in session the same way you might view exams in college. Which means the House of Representatives has TWENTY-EIGHT EXAMS in FOUR MONTHS. Now, for every single one of these, all 435 Representatives are expected to understand which of these exams are crucial to their constituents and to educate themselves sufficiently to represent the will of those constituents in the vote. In the event that a given exam is NOT crucial to their constituents, they MAY choose to educate themselves sufficiently to serve the country as a whole... or they may abstain. For this, they have - on the average - three days to prepare, and so educate themselves. I have worked with and for Congressmen. It is a HARD job. You have to make very large decisions in a very short time based on very incomplete information while special interests from all sides are shamelessly lying to you. And make no mistake: for all the bigotry and stupidity of the Republican rhetoric, I firmly believe they THINK they are acting in the best interest of the country. Its just that mostly, they seem to think the best interest of the country requires dealing with that uppity nigger in the White House. Which is horrible, on the one hand, but on the other... it kind of means the rest of our countrys problems are PROBABLY NOT THAT BAD. Being in Congress is not a damn party. You might think oh, six-figure salary, easy work days, you get to hang out with rich people - MOST CONGRESSMEN ARE MULTIMILLIONAIRES. They already have six figures. They already have easy work days. They dont just hang out with rich people, they ARE rich people. And if you say well its for the power, you clearly dont understand just how impotent a Congressman really is. Theres very little respect or influence that comes with the job; you mostly bring that with you. Look at how little Obama can accomplish without Congress, and then consider that each Representative can accomplish less than one quarter of one percent of what the entire House can. Even a Senator is just 1% of the Senate, and just 50% of their own state. House of Cards is fiction. Its based in truth and reality, but thats not saying much. In our actual Congress that we actually have, nobody is as overtly Machiavellian as Frank Underwood, and if anyone was hed be rapidly disenfranchised and made irrelevant. Just about EVERYONE in Congress is there because they HONESTLY want to make this a better country. Some of them have stupid ideas about how to do that, but their hearts are in the right place. Theyre not EVIL.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 06:09:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015