What’s wrong with the way congress works:
It is Elitist in its mechanization. The wealthy, the well connected, the highly visible and powerful have by far the most effective influence upon decisions made in congress—not the majority of the American voters. Money elects congress, and so money will most often be the deciding factor as to how a representative will vote. A Representative would rather offend six, seven, or nine out of ten poor non-contributing voters (to campaign coffers) than one out of ten well-paying voters. Money is power and power is channeled back toward sustaining, making, and gaining more and more money for re-election and so-forth. And so, the congressional process is elitist in its mechanization.
It is Ego-driven in its process. Power-moves, big personalities attempting to checkmate big egos and Power-plays, big time players attempting to outdo big shots. Huge egos unwilling to flinch less they appear weak, driven by pride, energized by arrogance, motivated by the self-satisfaction of being able to say, “I win. You lose!” It is a non-stop game of one-upmanship. It gets passionate and personal, for it is ego driven.
It is Enemy-oriented in its negotiations. Republicans and Democrats, supposedly two parties representing one nation. Rather, one would think that they are each a sole party of its own distinct nation worlds apart from each other, the Red nation and the Blue nation, with one sole desire: dominate and annihilate the opposing nation and its color. That is, respect and consideration for the other side’s position, compromise, and/or a middle of the road approach, is anathema, seen as a flat-out betrayal to one’s color. One does not openly negotiate with one’s enemy.
It is Extremist in its posturing. Only those who voice one mindset, promoting one narrow bias and focus, with an all or nothing stance, the extreme left or extreme right, seem to get center stage on the political platform. There apparently can be no middle ground. Balance and equanimity are disdained. There is certainly no desire for the application of insight and wisdom to seek healthy, practical, and equitable solutions to the many complex and confounding issues of our day. Such an approach is just too simple and too hard. Better we stick with the extremes.
It is Expedient in its action. That is, congressional action is based on what is simply advantageous for the moment, motivated by self-interest, rather than on what is right and just and good for the long run. They act only when they have to, and even then only just enough to get by, only so as to escape any dire political consequence for not acting at all.
We Americans take pride in our democratic system. I wonder how long it will take for us to realize that our present system is getting worse over time. It needs a healthy dose of tweaking and modification to keep it working well or even better. But do we have the courage and the political will to demand that we take the necessary steps to make it better. So far, whenever someone comes along and says, look we can have a more effective, equitable and workable system if we make these certain changes… it gets shot down by the powers that be. I have no doubt that, in the long run, if we don’t make certain constructive and necessary changes to our system, future generations of Americans will longingly look back at our day and say, “Ah yes, those were the good-ole-days!”
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