How to fix Congress

[Pathfinder]

Ammo's expensive......rope & light poles, remember?......Rope & light poles.   

Hey, even Mussolini was shot. Ammo ain't that expensive if you really need to use it.

[Solus]

Make ammo used that way tax deductible.

Maybe as a charitable contribution or as part of Community Service or an expense of fulfilling your Civic Duty or as contributing to the Common Defense.

[CJS3]

I say we take off and nuke the whole site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure we get the whole nest.

[Badgersmilk]

The best way to fix Congress is to make the listed rule changes, then shoot all the serving members, half their replacements, and a quarter of their replacements.
That should keep them in their place for a couple of election cycles anyway.

Studying the books of Stalin are we?     Somebody round up some Pollocks for Tom!  LOL!

[tombogan03884]

Studying the books of Stalin are we?     Somebody round up some Pollocks for Tom!  LOL!

Actually I got this idea from the French Army. As late as WWI if a unit performed poorly they would be decimated, (Every 10th man shot ) "To encourage the others".

[Sponsor]

[crusader rabbit]

Actually I got this idea from the French Army. As late as WWI if a unit performed poorly they would be decimated, (Every 10th man shot ) "To encourage the others".

Henry Ford applied a similar encouragement to his sales staff (back at the start).  He'd fire the lowest performing sales person each month.  Jobs were scarce.  Good jobs were even more scarce.  It encouraged maximum effort each month.

And, I'd maybe want to throw in another caveat:  Anyone who actually WANTS to be elected should be automatically disqualified from running.  We should maybe have something like a "draft" where we select several choices and require them to run/serve for a 2 or 4 year period--even if they don't want to.  At the end of their national service, they would be manditorily exempt from the draft and would not be allowed to hold other political office.

Even if we managed to select only complete morons in our national draft, we'd be stuck with them for only a short time.  (I'm specifically thinking of  Barney Frank here, but the House and Senate are rife with examples.)

I don't see how we could end up with less competence than we enjoy under the current system.

[Solus]

Henry Ford applied a similar encouragement to his sales staff (back at the start).  He'd fire the lowest performing sales person each month.  Jobs were scarce.  Good jobs were even more scarce.  It encouraged maximum effort each month.

And, I'd maybe want to throw in another caveat:  Anyone who actually WANTS to be elected should be automatically disqualified from running.  We should maybe have something like a "draft" where we select several choices and require them to run/serve for a 2 or 4 year period--even if they don't want to.  At the end of their national service, they would be manditorily exempt from the draft and would not be allowed to hold other political office.

Even if we managed to select only complete morons in our national draft, we'd be stuck with them for only a short time.  (I'm specifically thinking of  Barney Frank here, but the House and Senate are rife with examples.)

I don't see how we could end up with less competence than we enjoy under the current system.

I've often considered that option.  If a person is so hungry for power as to go through what it takes to get elected, they are suspect.  Some would start from a true desire to make the country better, but the problem is that they will end up feeling that they need to do things to make everything better and that they are the right one to do it.  Next thing you know, they are meddling in everything.  Good Intentions paving stones.

Only some details to work out to make it work I think.

I believe I read a book that sort of addressed that idea.   Might have been named Dark Horse but it was 40 years ago that I read it.