 Congress So I made myself a commitment to start a campaign to "Tro Da Bums Out!" (All of them)
First, I looked at Term Limits. Since 75% of Americans want term limits for Congress, I thought it would be easy. But... we need to get a bill for term limits thru Congress FIRST, which ain't never gonna happen!
Then I looked at Article V of the Constitution, which says that "the people" could have a "convention for proposing amendments". But this was already tried by Bill Walker of http://www.foavc.org, and bounced by the Supreme Court in 2004, erroneously (imho), and should be attempted again. But we should wait for a more 'originalist' court.
Finally, after listening to many website discussions on this topic, I have come to realize that there is one unstoppable, foolproof method of achieving the goal of reforming Congress. Simply put, we voters must never reelect anyone in Congress.
If enough voters stick to this simple principle thru several election cycles, reelections in Congress would plummet. This would have a major impact on the behavior of all incumbents remaining in Congress. Furthermore, the many freshmen elected in such a changed election climate would have no doubt that they will be serving very brief terms unless they vote as responsible legislators instead of party hacks. And they would be much more likely to vote for a term limits amendment bill just to serve more than one term.
The big question is: How do we get Americans to stop reelecting their lousy Congress? We don't have to succeed 100%. Just enough to drop House reelections from its current 98% down to about 65%. That'll get their attention!
And if we keep it up thru 2010, 2012, and 2014, we will make a big difference.
When the media talks about it, many, many people who haven't been voting will start voting again because they'll see they can make a difference.
A second question will be: Who should I vote for if I don't want to reelect my incumbent? Suggestions for both Democrats or Republicans:
1. If your guy was opposed in your primary, and lost, vote for the guy who beat him.
2. If he was opposed in the primary, and won, vote for the other major party guy.
3. If the other major party guy also won an unopposed primary, then vote for any 3rd party.
What we want is a 100% turnover in Congress, on BOTH sides of the aisle.
Remember the objective here is to defeat all incumbents of both major parties, so the simplest decision is to vote for any 3rd party candidate. Or, when in doubt, vote 'em out!
Nelson Lee Walker of http://www.tenurecorrupts.com, Saratoga, CA
http://www.tenurecorrupts.com
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