How Congressmen Stack the Deck against Voters

Most American voters have a low opinion of Congress but feel that their own congressman deserves to be re-elected. There's an obvious disconnect here. Why? I think that it's mainly because, in each election, most voters let their congressmen control the election debate and the flow of communication.
By way of analogy, suppose you were a teacher, and you had 345 students—that's the number of congressmen there are in the U.S. House of Representatives. Think of elections as mid-term or final exams. As their teacher, how would you react if your students told you that there should be 345 separate sets of questions on the exam; and that each student would decide what questions he should be required to answer? Then how would you react if they suggested that each student should be allowed to grade his own paper?
Now you have a picture of how it is that almost all congressional incumbents are re-elected to a congress that most voters think is rotten. Most voters let the incumbents tell them which issues and which votes are relevant to the voters’ decisions as to whether he should be re-elected. Don't expect that the incumbent's opponent will do the job for you. Opponents also have their agenda. Who's making sure that your agenda is properly addressed in the election? If you aren't, nobody is.
In case you think this is an exaggeration, let me tell you about two incidents I experienced. During one election on which I'd help manage, I asked an experienced operative, “What are the issues in this campaign?”
She replied, “The issues are whatever you say they are.” Did you get that? In most cases, the voters don't decide what the issues are; the candidate and his campaign team decide.
On another occasion, I observed that taking a stand on a controversial issue loses a candidate support from those who disagree, but it doesn't gain support from those who agree with the candidate’s position. I asked, “How do you deal with a controversial issue?”
The answer was, “If anyone asks you, give your answer in a truthful but matter-of-fact manner. If you don't treat it as an important issue, neither will most voters.” Did you get that? In most cases, the voters don't decide how important an issue is; the candidates do.
When individual voters or groups try to make an issue of some of their congressmen’s votes in Congress, congressmen usually protest, “Those votes weren't representative of how I usually vote in Congress. You should look at all of my voting record.” He knows, of course, that nobody will do that because nobody has that much time on his hands. On the other hand, when the congressman tells you what he has been doing in Congress, he makes no attempt to tell you about all of his voting record—just the votes that will make him look good. Did you get that? He's saying that you, the voter, have no right to choose which votes to consider in judging his performance; only he has the right to do that.
Since you're reading this article, I must assume that you want to “take America back,” to use the popular catchphrase. Before we can do that, we have to take the responsibility of taking our elections back. For a change, each voter must put himself in the driver's seat.
You decide which issues are important to you, and you be the judge of your congressman’s performance. How does your congressman stack up? Here and here are web sites that may help you to decide:
There are many other resources on the Internet. I'll try to find a few more non-partisan, really useful sites for you between now and the November elections. As the saying goes, “A new broom sweeps clean.” This November, let's sweep the moneychangers from the temple.
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How We Created the Mess in Washington, Part 2

Suppose we could somehow always know who the best person to represent us in Washington is. Suppose we were always right. We’re still left with the old man’s opinion, “Even if you elected Billy Graham to Congress, he’d become corrupt.” Actually, he was right.
It goes back to the Rotten Barrel Theory. It’s not that a few rotten apples spoil the whole barrel; it’s just that a rotten barrel spoils the apples. We’re partly responsible for the rottenness of that barrel.
We vote for the ones we think are the best people for the job; then we leave them to fend for themselves. Our congressmen need supervision. Strange as it seems, some of them need their constituents to hold their feet to the fire.
I mean it. I have heard some congressmen say privately that they know what they should be doing, but they’re under considerable pressure to do the wrong things. People with oceans of money threaten them with defeat in the next election if they don’t cave in. Those same congressmen have said that they’d like to be able to say that their constituents are angry and would ensure their defeat if they do the wrong thing. In short, they'd like as much pressure coming from us on certain issues as they're getting from greedy big shots.
Of course, I’m talking about the Congressmen who’ve not become corrupt--the ones who are not beholden to the banksters, Big Pharma, and the military-industrial complex. In the 1930’s movie Dracula, Renfeld wasn’t as subservient to the Prince of Darkness as many of our congressmen are. Likewise, I don’t see any hope for Nancy Pelosi seeing the light, either. (Like Lucy Westenra, also in the movie Dracula, Nancy Pelosi seems quite averse to the light of day.) She also seems perfectly content in her role as the Tammy Faye Bakker of Congress.
When I came to the realization that our congressmen need to hear from us, their constituents, I came to another realization: We need to educate ourselves. That was about the time I heard the remark, “Congressmen are like cockroaches. You shouldn’t be as concerned about what they’ll steal and carry off as what they’ll fall into and mess up.”

In those days, congressmen were content to steal only what they could carry off, which usually amounted to millions of dollars. Now they’re stealing trillions by borrowing it in our name for us to repay, and flooding the economy with fiat dollars that reduce the purchasing power of the dollars we already have. Incredibly, they’re using the rationale that they’re enriching us by further impoverishing us.
It took me almost ten years to realize that we needed to do more than just elect “the right person to the right office.” Afterwards, I devised a formula for what else we, as voters, should be doing.
We should inform ourselves on the issues of concern to us. We should inform other citizens. We should inform our elected officials and keep them under close supervision. (See my earlier article, “How to Contact Your Congressman.”) It was at that point that I became less focused on elections and more focused on political education.
(Speaking of educating yourself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide a helpful link so that you can see how your Senator or congressman voted on issues of concern to you. What those issues are, and how you feel about them is your decision. I won’t decide for you. Go to Open Congress.)
For about five years or so, I thought that my formula for cleaner politics should be enough. It wasn’t. As I went deeper into causes and solutions, I found the root of the problem—and, with it, a hint of a solution. At least one of the people on my mailing list knows exactly what the most important thing we can do to ensure more responsive—and responsible—representation is. I’ll discuss it in the next article.

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Realistic HOPE for CHANGing Congress

More than any election other year in my lifetime, American voters are demanding to change Congress. More than any other year in my lifetime, congressional corruption is a major election issue. YES, WE CAN!
In 2008, we got plenty of promises for “change” in Washington. We were given “hope” for “change you can believe in.” (Please excuse the bad grammar; I didn’t write the slogan.) Pretty slogans, weren’t they?
Depending on what part of the so-called political spectrum you think you occupy, you have your own explanations for how all that voter sentiment got hijacked. Here’s my explanation for it: Voters were conned into believing that they could get somebody else to change things for them. The error in thinking was that all we had to do was elect the right people to the right positions, then go back to watching our soap operas and sports on television. It doesn’t work that way, especially if the same rotten apples occupy the barrel.
It’s not enough to rid the Congress or the White House of rotten apples, though that’s a great start. Washington is a rotten barrel that spoils good apples. To put it another way, it’s not enough to drive the rats from the sewer, we need to take some industrial-strength cleanser to the sewer itself. I’ll talk about the industrial-strength cleanser in future articles, but here I want to focus on the rats in the sewer.
We can realistically hope for positive change in Washington this year because, for the first time in memory, voters are fed up enough to demand it. Most of the surveys I’m citing in this article are from the highly reliable Rasmussen Reports.
Now, 71% of American voters think Congress is “doing a poor job;” 18% say they’re doing a “fair” job; 9% say that Congress is doing a “good” job; and only 1% say that Congress is doing an “excellent” job. That’s the lowest rating in the history of Rasmussen polls.
A whopping 63% say that Congress would be better if incumbent congressmen were defeated this November. Only 27% say that their own congressman is the best person for the job. Some 42% of the voters believe that most congressmen are “corrupt.” Only 32% disagree with that statement, while 26% aren’t sure. For more information, click here.
Every bit as stunning as the previous finding, only 21% of the voters believe that the United States government “has the consent of the governed.” Another 18% aren’t sure, and an impressive 61% disagrees with the statement that the U.S. government “has the consent of the governed.” That 61% believes that the U.S. government now represents powerful special interests rather than the American people. Click here for details.
Some of you are thinking, Oh, I’ve never heard of Rasmussen Reports. Why should I trust their findings? Well, maybe you’ve heard of CNN, USA Today, and Gallup. According to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 49% of the voters say that most congressmen are corrupt, while a smaller percentage of voters disagree, and some are unsure. Thus, a majority of voters with an opinion on the question believe that most congressmen are corrupt. Here’s another good one: That same survey revealed that 53% of the voters think that congressional corruption will be a major issue in the coming election. Here and here are links you can enjoy.
At last count, 18 rats have decided to desert the ship. The others are getting very nervous about how vulnerable they are this fall. Let’s not lose that sense of mission between now and November. This November, we can sweep the rats out of office and start cleaning up the congressional sewer.
A new broom sweeps clean.