Fixing Our Nation

Everyone talks about how to fix our country. Some focus on social issues, others on gun control, and still more on the economy and its struggle to transition into the postmodern era. But very few, save for a two week period early last month, talk about the impact that Congressional rules are having on the way our government functions. The reality is that these rules, designed not for the betterment of the country but solely for the convenience of the legislator, are wreaking havoc on the progress of the United States. Until we fix these rules, making them align with the interests of the nation, we will continue to walk hopelessly into the future as a broken society with a disfunctional government.

First and foremost, the filibuster is useless and in need of elimination. While further procedural restraints also come into play, it is the filibuster that has made it easy for Congressmen and Senators to avoid taking unfavorable votes and to put politics ahead of progress. The result is that votes in both houses of Congress are largely pre-determined, with the filibuster and other means acting to prevent politicians from having to generate a record of policy stances that would either back or dispute their campaign platforms.

It is so easy to fix this. The Democratic party, often the victim of such obstructionist tactics from a minority GOP, has had two opportunities in the last four years to repeal the very rules obstructing the agendas both of their own party and of the nation as a whole. Giving them a pass for 2009 (there was genuine optimism that the GOP would be a cooperative minority), Democratic Senate majorities in 2011 and 2013 each failed to take a stance against the filibuster and other tactics that have over time made their way into the legislative rules at the request of cowardly politicians on both sides of the aisle. In failing to take such a stance, despite threats to take it, the Democrats are perhaps even more responsible for the lackluster progress of Congress in recent years and for the growing inability of government to work as it should. Sure, the GOP has collectively acted like a group of pre-schoolers opposing the imposition of nap time, but it is the Democrats under Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who have shunned use of the metaphoric pacifier very much available for use.

President Obama finally began to peel away the charade in his State of the Union speech last night. Calling for Senators and Congressmen to at least take the step of entering a vote on gun control legislation, the President exposed the impact procedural changes have had on the business of our national legislature. In effect, the ability to prevent even a vote has given politicians a relatively easy way to duck controversy and to play both sides of the coin. As a result, we not only have a Congress unable to do anything productive, but also deal with elections that regularly devolve into a war of words without any objective means of evaluation.

Whether you lie to the right or to the left of the elusive center, I think we can all agree that the filibuster is a tool for cowards. It allows those such as Paul Ryan to pass crazy legislation such as the "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act", playing to right-wing constituencies, without forcing Senators on BOTH sides of the aisle to record a stance either for or against this controversial legislation. Congressional votes are the greatest "Fact Checker" we have at our disposal. This is how the "founding fathers" imagined the system of checks and balances to play out, never envisioning that we would be forced to deduce the truth through the filter of a CNN or Fox News-employed "fact checker".

I have no problem with politicians taking a stance that I disagree with. In fact, I think disagreement is the essence of American democracy. But taking a stance requires not simply making outlandish statements on cable news. It requires an actual vote. Right now, those stances are being avoided across the political spectrum.

If we remove the tools available to enable such cowardly governance, I truly believe that we would find solutions to our rapidly growing social and economic issues. We would find that when you remove rhetoric, the level agreement between those on opposite sides of the aisle is actually pretty substantial. When you no longer allow politicians to take extreme positions without a concrete vote backing them, you will quickly find that both extremes are far more moderate than they would like us to believe. Sure there are crazy folks out in government, but once they are subjected to the ultimate test of a vote, we will start to see them gradually fade away from prominence if only as a means of political survival.

From gun control to tax cuts and from military spending to emergency funding, all we can ask for from our leaders is that they take a stand and a vote to back it up. If that vote ultimately represents our views, we can vote for their re-election. If it doesnt, we can take our vote elsewhere. But democracy doesnt work without the taking of votes, without the willingness on the part of representatives to show their constituents how they are going to actually govern. If we want solutions, the first thing we need to solve is the system of legislative rules we have in place that enables cowardice to produce Congressional deadlock. Once we collectively take the cover off and expose the views of these political cowards, we will be well on our way to "fixing the nation".