Changing Congress

I received an email the other day, one that is apparently “making the rounds” that suggests we need to do something about the way that Congress is abusing its power by passing so many laws that apply to the citizenry of the country but not to its own membership. After a fairly lengthy and rather flowery rant it says,

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution -

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

Oh, for God’s sake. It never fails to amaze me, the lengths that American voters will go to in order to avoid taking responsibility for their own destiny.

In the first place, if members of Congress are abusing their power we don’t need a constitutional amendment to change that, we need voters who are paying attention and will vote them out of office or, better yet, call for their impeachment. But the voters don’t do that. They accord Congress a 20% approval rating, complain about how it “never gets anything done,” rant about it being “unaccountable to the people” and then reelect its members to office 94% of the time.

Congress behaves in a manner unaccountable to the people of this nation because the people of this nation do not hold them accountable for their action once they attain office. Election to office, short of sexual congress with a goat on the Capitol steps, is essentially for life, because incumbency assures reelection 94% of the time. It does so not because of performance, but merely due to the inertia of the voters of this nation who are too damn lazy to base their vote on anything other than the number of paid television commercials they happen to catch while watching “America’s Got Talent.”

In the second place, Congress is abusing its power in far more ways than merely passing laws which don’t apply to itself. The proposed amendment merely cures one symptom and leaves the disease unaddressed. If you have a man who is robbing banks, raping, murdering and setting fires, you don’t solve the problem by putting better locks on the damn banks. Better locks, and a constitutional amendment, as a solution to the problem are world class stupidity.

Even now we are being urged to vote for Democrats in the upcoming election in November merely because they are Democrats. Do not, for God’s sake, evaluate the person behind that Democratic label or examine the voting record in Congress. Obama is campaigning in support of Democrats who voted against health care reform.

Vote for the Democrat, the television commercials tell us, or the scary Republican will get into office and things will become so much worse. One television commercial tells us the Republican is lying, and another tells us the Democrat is lying. Count them up and decide by the numbers.