Make Congress less remote by implementing remote working methods

That Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing is beyond debate. A set of polls from five different polling organizations running from June 1 through July 1 show an approval rate ranging from 9 percent to 17 percent, an indictment of current members and what they are doing if ever there was one.

There is little agreement between Democrats and Republicans in both houses on any subject, and Congress stooped to using the most devious process in recent years to ram through the highly partisan Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, which was opposed by a majority of the American people when it was being considered, and is even more strongly opposed today. Congress acted in opposition to the will of the people, a serious breach of trust.

It has long been the practice for Members of Congress to essentially become residents of the DC area when they are elected and spend scant time in their home states and districts, and despite their best intentions cannot avoid becoming Washington insiders to some degree, and thus residents of their home states in name only.

Furthermore, many members of Congress fancy themselves as "special," part of an elite group, and all of them benefit from job-related perks the rest of us don't have access to, like gold-plated health and retirement programs that ought to be illegal, a big salary and staff, being treated like queens and kings, and who often make decisions that are aimed at satisfying special interests rather than making the best decisions for their constituents and for the nation.

What we see today is a fulfilling of Thomas Jefferson's prophecy: "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yeild (Jefferson's spelling), and government to gain ground," which he wrote in a letter to Edward Carrington in 1788.

Power corrupts, they say, and the lure of power partially accounts for the increasing domination of the federal government over the citizens. Another reason is that it is much easier for special interests to access our Senators and Representatives than for the voters that elected them. That statement is not necessarily a slam at elected officials or their staffs, who may work diligently to serve the citizenry, but a criticism of the geographic distance from the official's home state or district and the small amount of time available to spend back home.

A popular concept about responsive government is that the most responsive leaders are those that can most easily be reached; it's easier to communicate your ideas to members of the city council and county supervisors than to your Congressional representatives. A trip across the street, downtown or to the next town is far more satisfactory than a trip to Washington.

In the beginning, those serving in Congress spent a few weeks in Washington each year and the rest of the time at home working at their jobs as farmers, business owners, doctors and lawyers. Perhaps despite its strong appeal it isn't realistic to return completely to that arrangement, but two Congressmen have suggested a change to the way the House of Representatives works that is a step in that direction.

California Democrat Representative Eric Swalwell recently introduced a proposal to amend House rules to enable lawmakers to take care of business from their district offices, instead of having to be in Washington so much of the time. His idea involves using the latest technologies like video conferencing for hearings, committee meetings and the like, and a secure remote voting system. As of last weekend, two others had signed on as cosponsors, Republicans Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming and New Mexico’s Steve Pearce, who had previously introduced a similar measure that would require representatives to appear in person for certain required or essential House activities.

This idea has great appeal. Wouldn't it be terrific for our elected representatives to be able to attend local events regularly? Wouldn't it be great to find yourself in line at the grocery store in front of your senator or representative, or to run into him or her at a sporting event or a restaurant, and when you visited one of the district offices to find them working there?

Undoubtedly, our officials would have a much better sense of what their constituents think about the pressing issues of the day when they interact with them on a daily basis than when they rarely see them face to face. And it would make more difficult the special interest lobbying that now poisons the legislative process.

Currently, Congress meets only three or four days a week for most of the year, due to holidays and allowances for members to travel to and from home to spend a little time with their families and constituents. Such an arrangement might also result in lower spending for Congressional operations, given the need for fewer flights home and back, and in this day of repeated trillion-dollar budget deficits, that would be a plus, even if the savings were relatively small.

It can't be a bad thing for elected officials to be more available for contact by their constituents. Both accountability and performance would improve.

Tea Party Terrifies The Mainstream Media

Tea Party Terrifies The Mainstream Media
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

In less than three weeks Americans go to the polls determined to change the federal government back to a responsive, responsible, government, which actually HAS the consent of the governed.

The Mainstream Media is flat-out “hacked-off” by this unparalleled behavior by the people they, too often in the past, have counted as sheep to be led by their left-wing propaganda which they have spoon fed the masses with their pabulum presses and mediocre “news” broadcasts.

The American public is NOT responding and NOT behaving as it is supposed to, and they are frightened.

See – this Tea Party “thing” was never supposed to happen. Nosiree! Just as they have for decades, the American public was supposed to act -- and re-act -- based upon the propaganda fed them by the Mainstream Media. Not THIS time.

It seems the MSM had not factored in an extremely important part of Americans lives today. The Internet.

No longer are Americans shackled to their TV sets at 6:30 PM, or their newspapers at the breakfast table. Now, with the Internet, Americans are plugged into news from around the world on a 24-hour basis. Often the news is “raw.” In other words, it has not been filtered through editors.

And then there are the “citizen journalists.” Oh, THAT is a term the newsies absolutely HATE! For years now members of the MSM have declared there is no such thing as a citizen journalist. All the while those citizens journalists were plying their trade 24 hours a day on the Internet, directly under the noses of the MSM. In other words, those news amateurs were doing the jobs of the MSM. While “raw” their reports were reaching hundreds of thousands of readers hours, and even days, before those same reports appeared in the print and broadcast media.

It did not take the public long to learn there was a constant source of news right at their fingertips anytime they wanted it. That was when the MSM learned they were in BIG TROUBLE!

Then something called a “Web Log” was born. The two words were soon contracted into the single word “Blog” and those who wrote in those “Blogs” became known as “Bloggers.”

The problem with the bloggers was, and remains, that they tend to tell their readers, right up front, where lies their bias. Bloggers do not tend to proclaim themselves non-biased. In fact, they oftimes go out of their way to make it clear to readers whether they are conservative, or liberal, right wing, or left wing. Turns out that was a smart move. It also turns out that readers are comfortable with that knowledge. They can go directly to their favorite conservative blog, or news source or their favorite liberal blog or news source and not have to wade through all the “blather” from the political philosophy they abhor.

Then there is the communications afforded by the Internet which is instantaneous, 24-hours a day 7-days a week. Americans could, for the first time, have a never-ending conversation with each other about anything they wanted.

As it turned out, many Americans wanted to swap political ideas. They began to form into online communities. That’s when the American electorate really found its power.

Soon after the election of 2006, Americans found their government had gone rogue. “Rogue” in the sense that it was no longer responsive to the wishes and desires of the electorate. As the months and years passed the Congress became less and less connected to its constituents. They simply forgot or chose to ignore the fact that they govern with the consent of the governed.

That was when the American electorate decided to use the power they had (with the Internet) to form a resistance movement which would confuse the legislators efforts and if not render them impotent, then certainly slow them down in their efforts to transform America into some sort of excremental socialist nightmare.

Today the landscape of the cyber sphere is littered with portals for all kinds and sorts of political philosophies and organizations. If not the most powerful, then certainly ONE of the most powerful turned out to be the Tea Party.

Demanding that the United States be returned to its status as a constitutional, representative, republic the Tea Party grew with the ferocity of a wind swept prairie fire until it became a juggernaut of like-minded Americans with one goal in mind: to rescue America from the clutches of a government drunk on power.

The power of the Tea Party has influenced primary elections across the country and are now set to rearrange the US House of Representatives and, quite possibly, the US Senate, as well, while plans for the drive to retire the US President loom dead ahead.

There is little to prevent the Tea Party from becoming a third powerful political party in America should the new Congress fail to live up to their expectations in the next few months. It is possible they could replace the Republican Party just as the Republican Party replaced the Whig Party a century and a half, or so, ago.

All of this can be traced back to the arrogance of BOTH political parties in America and to the elite Mainstream Media and their continued support of left wing politics.

The Tea Party reflects the unique American trait of revolution based on the ballot box rather than the cartridge box.

No matter what your feelings about the Tea Party happen to be, this is an important and historical moment in American history. It has shaken the world of the Mainstream Media to the core. They are confused and frightened. They still don’t get that this is America and when American feel their freedom is under attack, they will, as ever, fight back.

J. D. Longstreet