One of the biggest complaints about politics today is the inability of the two parties to work together. In fact this is partly what drove people to vote for Obama. During the campaign he often promised to bring the parties together in a more harmonious fashion.
Well the election is long behind us and so is the idea of a more civil debate over issues. This is not to lay it all on Obama. This problem has been long brewing, Bush also campaigned on being able to work with the opposition. We all know how that worked out.
This morning on the way to work I heard an interview with Mike Huckabee on the radio. This was not a political show but local radio guys Lanigan and Malone. They were reviewing Huckabee's new book a collection of Christmas memories. After talking about the book for a little while they asked the obligatory question of weather Huckabee was going to run for president again.
Following up they asked him why politics was so rancorous and what could be done about it. Huckabee had two suggestions for alleviating the discord first he would like term limits on congress. Secondly he would like to repeal the seventeenth amendment, this amendment changed the way we elect senators. Early on state legislatures appointed our senators as opposed to popular elections.
The reasoning behind term limits was to have congressmen voting in the countries best interests as opposed to just trying to get re-elected. With the seventeenth amendment he feels the way we are electing senators now they function to much like congressmen. With state legislatures appointing they were more beholden to their individual states. This kept a more even balance between states rights and federal dominance.
I don't like the term limits idea, I feel this is a restriction on freedom of speech. Repealing the 17th amendment might have merit and give the states a measure of power back.
By the way Huck says he doesn't really see himself running again but you never know.
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I'm not a Huckabee fan. He is too much of a nanny-state socialist for my tastes. However, I do agree that repealing the 17th Amendment would be a good start. Direct election of senators has lead them to embrace more populist BS. As far as term limits for congresscritters, well we already have them. They get a two year term limit every two years. If you don't like 'em, then vote them out of office. I will admit that the problem is I can only vote for or against my own congressman not Murtha, Moran, Pelosi, etc. I pretty much like my congressman (Boehner) so my ability to change things is fairly limited. Polls show people dislike congress, yet incumbents keep winning. Why? Reality is people just don't care for the congressmen other people vote into office over and over.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest complaints about politics today is the inability if the two parties to work together.
ReplyDeleteI see that as a feature, not a bug. If thieves break into my house, I would prefer that they start fighting about how to go about robbing me, rather than cooperating with each other.
John, you have a point there but maybe we wouldn't end up with legislation that makes absolutely no sense if they listened to one another.
ReplyDeleteThe legislation doesn't make sense because they listen to each other.
ReplyDeleteThey create bills so enormous that no one reads them, and so complex that no one can understand them, so that special provisions in their favor can be hidden in the confusion and bureaucrats can interpret the law to mean anything that they want it to mean.
The confusion is intentional, not accidental.