Together We Can Fix Washington

As Washington and Jefferson look across America from the heights of Mount Rushmore they have to be extremely disappointed at the dysfunction of the great American experiment they helped create. The system of government the Founding Father’s envisioned “by the people for the people” has been distorted into government “by the elite for the elite.” Through statesmanship and compromise our Founding Fathers worked together, despite significant differences, to design and implement a system of democracy based on serving the rights and freedoms of all Americans. I can only imagine the frustration and heartache they would experience if they witnessed the dysfunction of Congress today. It’s not surprising that most Americans share this frustration but what’s even more shocking is the American people have done nothing to change the paradigm.

Congress Won’t Consider Term Limits

If Americans are waiting for Congress to institute term limits their patience will only be rewarded with more disappointment and frustration. Immediately following President Trump’s election Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it perfectly clear that the Senate would not consider term limits. “We have term limits” McConnell said “They are called elections.” To be fair although McConnell is a Republican this thought and belief is also widely held by the majority of Democrats. Very few members of Congress have any interest in term limits. They understand the power of the incumbent and have no interest in any action that would threaten the power, privilege and monetary gain they enjoy as incumbents in Congress.

Incumbents Are Favored

Facts prove that our election system overwhelmingly favors the incumbent.  Since 1988 an average of 94% of all incumbents in the House and Senate have been reelected.  This is not surprising when you realize that in 2016 it cost $10.5 million to win a Senate seat and $1.5 million to win a seat in the House.  It is this incumbent tilted system that has led to politicians like Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senators Charles Grassley and Mitch McConnell sitting in the Senate for decade upon decade. In fact the list of current members of Congress that have been in office since Bill Clinton’s first term is frightening and would more than fill this page. Is it any wonder that our system of “by the people for the people” is broken! Incumbents have no desire to change a system that permits them to spend much of their time in office raising funds for their next election rather than serving the needs of America. New candidates entering the election process have virtually little to no chance of winning under our current system. More importantly, it is this system of guaranteed victory that provides no incentive for long term members of Congress to work together across the aisle to serve the needs of the average American.

Time to Change the Paradigm

The question is will you as an American voter do anything about it? We can continue to sit back and watch incumbent after incumbent reelected and I can assure you nothing will change in Washington. Or we can decide to stand up and make America work by voting “no” for all incumbents, Democrat and Republican alike. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. I have a hard time believing this would produce worse results than we have today. It’s time to change the paradigm and get America working again.  Make our Founding Father’s proud, vote “no” for all incumbents.

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