If Congress can’t fix the health care system, and can’t pass tax reform, and can’t pass a budget, what can it do? It can get almost all of its members reelected. Which guarantees that the next Congress won’t accomplish anything either. The legislative branch of the federal government is broken, except for its ability to maintain its own power. Elections don’t matter.
The only answer is, of course, for the states to use their power under Article V to stage an intervention. But we’re told that’s too dangerous, because the states can’t be trusted. They’ll abuse their power, and undermine our constitutional rights. So what we really need to do is elect better people.
I’ve been having the same argument for over 30 years, and it’s starting to sound stale. But, just maybe, Congress is so obviously cocked up that people realize something has to be done. The Phoenix Convention of States will, hopefully, give the whole effort a second wind.
I wasn’t on the floor, but the feeling I got from watching the proceedings was that these state legislators were beginning to function together as a self conscious unit. It was like the first day of a legislative session, with members gathering at the Capitol from all the far corners of the state. They meet, they organize, and they start acting like a legislature. You may be from Idaho, and you’ve got South Carolina on your left, and New Hampshire on your right, but you’re all part of the same team. It’s a good feeling.
If there was a sense of camaraderie, it could be the start of something big. For this to amount to anything, there has to be another Convention of States in 2018, with 30 or more states in attendance. Then things could really take off. In the mean time, the Phoenix Correspondence Commission will need to keep the flame alive. It should be organizing soon.
Meanwhile, we’ve got the spectacle of Congress to provide us with a daily dose of dysfunction and deficits. The only consolation is that the worse it gets, the better the case for Article V.
Will any Republican candidate for the U. S. Senate, in a contested primary, want to be associated with this dysfunction by supporting Mitch McConnell for Majority Leader? The way things are headed Sens. Flake, Heller and Wicker are going to be toast.
What can they say? Vote for me, and get more of the same? Not a winner.
The only way to run for Congress in 2018 is to run against it, and damn near everybody in it. They’re all corrupt, incompetent, or both. They’re creatures from the swamp, and they need to be discarded for a fresh start. One by one.
In today’s political climate, why would you even want to run for Congress, unless to overthrow the powers that be?
Unless the swamp somehow appeals to you.
reaganproject.com 