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Today’s tirade brought to you by the letters C (Corruption & Congress), L (Lobbyists), B (Bribery) and P (Politics/Politicians). Before I go any farther let me first point out that I have no doubt that there are politicians who genuinely do try to do the right thing. Also I am not a member of any political party. Why you may ask, I quite frankly can’t stand them.

The first problem that needs to be addressed is the Parties (basically the two parties: Democrats & Republicans). Why do these need to be addressed? The very existence of these parties is interfering with any/all decisions/investigations in which either side has a particular view point. As I understand it the parties came about to make it easier to find like minded individuals with certain political viewpoints. But as it has evolved those parties should really be be split into multiple parties from there. There are about 5 different classifications that spring to mind within the Republican party itself. In actuallality it is probably closer to about 15 in each party. Unfortunately the party system has done what all good party systems do. Think back to your high school days, then the parties were much more accurately referred to as cliques. Don’t believe me? Think about it for a sec, the senators/representatives that we have voted to represent us aren’t doing their job at all. Depending on their party affiliation they will most likely vote with their party not in the interest of their constituents. You see it wouldn’t do to have the other party get credit for getting a bill passed that their constituents may want, because then the other party can’t come back and save the day on that issue later when they are in power. Do you see what I mean, it is just like High School, only this time instead of a budget of a few hundred or a few thousand. It is a budget of a few billion or a few trillion.

The second major problem is term limits, for example Strom Thurmond served as a senator for South Caroline for 49 years. I’m not saying he did good or he did bad while he was in office, I’ll leave that to the historians and future generations to decide. But in my opinion serving in a position of power for such a long time will inevitably lead to the taking for granted the powers/responsibilities of that office. In 1951 the 22nd amendment was ratified to limit the number of times that a person could hold the office of President of the United States. Although not officially law most Presidents did not attempt to run for more than two terms before Franklin Delano Roosevelt out of tradition. FDR was elected to 4 terms in office(the last of which he he died a year after being re-elected) which prompted Congress to propose an amendment to ensure an elected president does not become a lifetime benevolent dictator. Unfortunately, Congress has never seen fit and will never see fit to limit their own terms. I believe this is long overdue and much needed to protect the American people much the same way that the 22nd Amendment was adopted to protect the US from creating a dictatorship. In my opinion Congress will never choose to limit itself which leaves the only option for such an amendment to be brought up by at least two-thirds of the states as allowed for in Article Five of the United States Constitution.

All of this may seem a bit drastic, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Consider everything we have seen over the last 20 years or so. From my own state of Utah Senator Orrin Hatch ran on a platform of 18 years is too long to oust he encumbent Frank Moss in 1977, he has now been in office for 29 years. At least every few weeks there are stories of corruption or special treatment in regards to members of Congress for instance William Jefferson just this last week and Patrick Kennedy’s crash a few weeks ago. I’m not picking on just them, but they are the most recent ones that come to mind.

What would I do, since I can can’t do anything about the parties legally I would only try to better educate the people on just what is done and hold the members of Congress accountable. It is being done now, but it needs to be increased. It is unforgivable that so many laws/need/bills/etc are essentially stopped only because one party doesn’t want the other party to succeed. Only to bring up the same thing a few years later because they are in power. Second term limits must be amended to the constitution, specifically the Representatives should be held to a limit of 3 terms of 2 years each. Senators should be held to a limit of 2 terms of 4-6 years each staggered such that there is always at least one experienced senator in office at any given time. 3rd and not major, but necessary, stricter adherence to the Robert’s Rules of Order and other rules governing the conduct and procedures that Congress must follow. For Example it used to be that for a filibuster to continue on and not be defeated the members filibustering were not allowed to leave whatsoever(except for maybe bathroom breaks, but I am not sure). If they did leave their forfeited the filibuster. Unfortunately with the laxness of the rules/conduct currently, a filibuster can last for weeks, but there is no requirement that I have seen that the filibustering members must stay. This would allow for much more to be accomplished and less filibustering for filibusterings sake.