I recently listened to a 99% PI interview with Democratic Representative Sharice Davids
It just highlighted bigs flaw in our politics and politicians.
First, they are giddy about procedure and nonchalantly admit it's impossible to get anything done.
"We vote on a procedural matter to even be able to vote on the floor for a bill, so we're like voting on whether not we're gonna vote...The goal isn't always to actually get a piece of legislation done in that term, even though that probably is the ultimate goal...you can often tell when something is meant for 'messaging' and when something is meant to be a piece of substantive legislation."
From the Parliamentarian, to PAYGO, to "bipartisanship," our politicians are obsessed with making things hard, even when they shouldn't be. They are not guided by REASON, they are guided by ritual.
Second, we create these arbitrary term lengths and limits without any rules around WHAT they are going to do during that time.
"I can say that for, from the legislative perspective, I do think about now, I mean, I'm in my fourth term now, so I do think about if there's something that, if there are changes that we're trying to make that might be, um, more substantive...like major infrastructure projects are usually, those are on like a 10 year timeframe, you know? And so there's something really disjointed and ineffective about having people making decisions on two year timeframes for projects that take 10 years to, to come to fruition."
It would make more sense to send them to Congress with a SPECIFIC agenda and their job is to get certain things done, not just occupy a seat for a set number of years. Now yes, we have to make sure they have enough time to get it done, and we don't want them there indefinitely, but our current system is not responsive enough.
Third, our Representatives are saying to our face that "change is impossible"...now I am not certain how much of that is channeling their inner lobbyist, or lack of will, or if they really have locked themselves into worthlessness through procedure, but the message is clear: WE MUST CHANGE THE PROCESS.
"But, you know, you've got the federal government with their policies, you've got the state level government, and in some cases you have local stuff. Um, and that's just on the environmental piece of permitting reform. Then there's, there's all the different touch points of, uh, of getting a project done. And because of that, I mean, it's complex, you know, and if you think you're gonna introduce a piece of legislation, get it through a committee, which like something with permitting reform would touch on like multiple committees, the energy and commerce committee, transportation and infrastructure, probably some other one like, uh, USDA might be impacted. So there's all these different committees that come in to play. And then you have the whole house floor, so 435 members.
So if you think in two years, you're going to be able to get like, like for the first time, introduce a piece of legislation, get it through the committees, get it through the floor, just in the house, get it, like have the Senate, take it up, go through their process with committees and getting it to the floor and then go to conference and get all of that done in two years. It's just like that, that's just not going to happen."
Lastly, I want to touch on our System on the whole. When our leaders and citizens are reasonable, it seems to work, but when our leaders are corrupt and our public ignorant, it immediately crumbles. A sane/working system should do the opposite, it should allow the most change when people are reasonable and it should slow things to a crawl when dishonest/corrupt/authoritarian entities try to undermine it (It should also -structurally- incentivize citizens to become engaged/knowledgeable and punish corruption). Our problems are only getting more severe, more complicated, and more widespread; and our System is not up to the challenge.
We need a public square untainted by algorithms and money interests. A new PUBLIC institution of journalism that informs and fosters debate. Media can't be left solely to "the market," its effects on the minds of our children and the broader public are now clear.
Sidenote: We don't even have the "Public Service Announcements" on "saturday morning cartoons" of yesteryear (if you're young, lookup the "more you know" and "knowing is half the battle" messaging, I'm sure it's on the Internet somewhere). What we have now are -effectively-YouTubers and Instagram models raising our children; MADNESS.
All this to say, the Congress shouldn't be a place for posturing, partisanship, signalling, and debate; it should be a place where problems are solved, policy is made, and stuff gets DONE.
