So i got a pretty sweet idea and made an editorial article outta it, and submitted it to everyone and thier mom and thier grampa and thier little dog too, and no one seems to want it. Ive published stuff that is like not even close to as good as this, and this, which i think is groundbreaking, nobody wants. WSJ, Investors daily, Am. Thinker, and all the rest of you guys, you are a bunch of F'ing noobs for not seeing the potential in this, I say!
So imma post it here, cause i think its good enough to cause a possible political groundswell. Anyone who reads it and likes it, please pass it on because (and i hate to sound like a certain asshat whose name i wont mention, but who is definitely an asshat)-- i think it could bring some hope and change!
THE CONGRESS OF THE NEW MILLENIUM
According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 57% of Americans, if they had their druthers, would boot the entire legislature and “start all over again”, and according to the same poll, Congress has a disapproval rating of 75%.
Rep. Massa (D.-NY) said he would “adamantly vote against the interest of his constituents. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said town halls are not “a productive use of my [his] time.” Rep. Murtha (D. NY), a 16 term incumbent, calling his constituents a bunch of rednecks, and still got re-elected just three months later.
While August Recess 2009 seems to have brought some measure of accountability, it also illustrated quite a bit of blatant disregard of constituents, and made our elected reps look more than ever like fish out of water in their own hometowns—driving home the inconvenient truth that loyalty to constituents is on the decline, and, we can only assume, loyalties to other political forces/special interests back home in Washington is increasing.
And this is exactly the problem—our reps are now at home in Washington, and Washington is where their livelihoods are—coming back one month a year to talk to their people is just a dreary chore that they’d just as soon avoid (like Sen. Durban). Wouldn’t things be better if, when our reps came back to face the much-deserved August music—they never left? While previously impossible, technology has not only made this possible, but viable. Consider the idea of a legislator—who telecommutes.
A simple theater room such every self-respecting bigshot has in his house anyway nowadays, along with a virtual-teleconferencing system and the proper networking hardware and software -- would make a” virtual session” of congress function almost indistinguishably from a “real” session. Committees could easily meet in private by clicking the other members names and closing the session. Backroom deals between anyone on the server could be similarly performed, without the need to even find a back room to retreat to. Any legislator could easily establish a “virtual presence” in congress from anywhere in the U.S. via basic conferencing software, and a wireless network with an intercom system, both of which undoubtedly exist in Congress buildings already. Anyone who thinks this impossible has likely never seen gotomeeting.com, or watched their teenagers play “Worlds of Warcraft”, an interactive computer game where tens of thousands from all over the world are online and communicating at once. Hell, even the newest Sony Playstation, could do this.
Legislators “working from home” would have two effects. First, it would cause them to be tied to their home districts in a far more meaningful way than they currently are. Instead of coming home once a year and spending the rest of their time in D.C. airing campaign commercials on local TV stations which they themselves haven’t watched in years, Reps would walk out of their offices and take lunch with their people, live among their people, do business with their people, and send their kids to school with their peoples kids.
Put in the simplest terms: Animals do not defecate where they eat and sleep, and neither do human beings—not even politicians. So if you want them to diligently attend to the needs of their homes, make them eat and sleep there.
Secondly, the onset of such a practice would likely cause an influx of new and “higher quality” political blood: People who are tied to their communities by family and careers and who have the desire to serve the communities but no desire to uproot themselves and their families and their businesses and go to Washington-- The type of people for whom public service is an ends in itself, rather than the a stepping-stone in a “political career. “ People who view politics as a “career” will treat it as a career: they will do what they have to in order to advance to the top. This type of political structure—our current one—is in many respects repugnant to dutiful public service, as it is so highly subject to the innately corruptive influence of power and ambition upon the human heart.
While “work from home” legislation would face the same difficulties as term limits legislation, consider the power of a candidate imposing such a requirement on himself—running on a platform of “I’m actually one of you, and to prove it, I’m going to have my office right here on Main street and I am going to stay there all year, and have town halls once a month”. Issues aside, this candidate would have what the polls show almost no politician has anymore—credibility—the people’s trust. This advantage alone could prove so decisive for a candidate in an election that his opponent would be forced to make the same concession to “work from home” or face certain defeat. If the idea of such a practice were to catch on, a sort of “domino effect” could rapidly cause the work-at-home model to go from being a far-out exception to being the norm.
Until the first candidate with the guts to truly tie his own fate into that of his people rises out of the political ashes, legislative telecommuting is an untested hypothesis. But let’s face it: When 42% of people would entrust congress to random people out of phonebooks over current legislators (with 16% not sure) and 50% think that rigged elections are the reason that incumbents win at the rate they do (90% per the article) then disenchantment is at an all time high, and the age of the “work from home” legislator may very well be upon us.
Who knows-- by 2014, the great old marble buildings in Washington may have become concert halls, bringing in revenue from events like celebrity weddings and Britney Spears concerts, finally enabling the Government to turn a profit at something.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
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