Congress is at a historic low in approval. Why? Let me ask you a question. If at your company or business, the financial department closed the business for a few hours, days, or weeks because they could not agree on how to pay the bills, or what parts of the company to fund they all would be fired. En masse. The business or company would not tolerate it.
Now, in the world today, there is plenty of political unrest. Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Thailand to name just a few, have dealt with or are dealing with political turmoil and change. In these nations a portion of the population has become disillusioned with the government and sought out change. Of course each of these nations has handled the issue differently, some better than others, and, in all of these examples at least, the move for change or reform has led to violence and death, not to mention civil war and crimes against humanity.
America is not like that. We have a democracy we believe in, even if we don’t believe in the people we have elected to be caretakers of our democracy. If I did not like something the president did or does, I would not take up arms against him (or her). First of all, this would be suicidal. A government will kill to protect itself. There is nothing more serious than an organization willing to kill you to maintain power. But there is no need for this in the United States, we have the vote. We already have the power to change the government, both its people and the very nature of the Constitution that grants power to our government. The Constitution is not tyrannical decree, it is an agreement between the governed and the government, and the governed have the power to change it. The power of the vote, the power of democracy.
But there is no Constitutional mechanism to fire congress. So it is left to us, the 300 million plus citizens of the United States, to effect change. How, and what would we change? I propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States allowing for the summary firing of congress. A recall. Perhaps two different mechanisms, one making states legislate a process to recall federal congressmen in their own state and another mechanism to nationally recall all of Congress at once. Why? Because we, the people of the United States of America are the boss, and they work for us. They need to know this. Everyone who comes after the current congress needs to know this. Congress needs to hear the message, “You have done a piss poor job and you’re fired.”
This is both easier and harder to do than one might think, and we have lawyers and lawmakers to figure it out. But we the people don’t have to do much save notify our local state government that you want an amendment to fire congress. After that, the ball is their court. If they do nothing, remember it on Election Day. If enough state officials are notified, it will create a discussion. Then a national debate. And once the debate is on the national stage there would be change. Congress would act to try and avoid the necessity of an amendment to fire them. But then again they might not. Find out who your state representatives are and contact them. Tell them you want to fire congress and then remember what they do on Election Day. We do not have to sit down and simply put up with this baloney. We can change it.
