Vote the Incumbents Out !!

Oh, this is going to ramble and I apologize in advance.

People in Congress care. They care deeply. Probably more deeply than you can even imagine. They just don't care about what the rest of us care about.

And why should we expect they would? Congress as a body and parties as institutions are comprised of people who at heart are no different than any other group of people.

Ever been on a PTA or a church committee? Ever see how they function and the way decisions are made? There's an inherent feeling of "screw the ones who aren't here. We're the ones putting in the time and effort". Generally this is after making some effort at compromise and trying to do the right thing, and being roundly slammed by almost everyone for whatever decisions are made.

Granted there's a vast chasm between volunteer committee-ship and being an overcompensated and perk swaddled member of Congress, but the basic psychology is the same.

Voting out the incumbents only means another party picked lackey is plugged in.

The Tea Party had the right idea in principle (hold your ire for a moment) in that change has to happen at the grassroots level where the decisions about who gets slated are made. The big problem was inevitable and could be seen coming from miles away - once they reached a critical mass sufficient to be truly significant, they were rapidly co-opted by the usual suspects who ran out in front of the movement and declared themselves 'leaders'.

There was insufficient discipline within the movement to prevent the perversion of the vision.

Real change isn't going to come at the ballot box. By then it's way too late. The change has to be made at the level where the decisions are made about who's going to choose the choices we can choose.

Do what you've always done, get what you always got. To think otherwise is insanity.

That means roll up the sleeves, attend the local party meetings, do all that ugly 'political' BS that no normal person really wants to do. And if enough people can do that, and come out the other side without complete contempt for the indifference displayed by the majority of the population the majority of the time, with the corresponding "screw you, I busted my hump and now you want to give me a hard time?" Maybe. Maybe we have a prayer.

Otherwise, it'll be same as it ever was until something truly horrific, uncontrollable, and Earth altering occurs. Which always has in the past and will again. I'm talking Black Plague, WWIII, World Depression/Famine asteroid impact type event.

Every revolution eventually evaporates and leaves behind the slime of a new bureaucracy.

Cheers.

I think term limits are a start. But I think it's insufficient unless and until the next goof through the door isn't a handpicked stooge. Trading one stooge for another still leaves you with a stooge.

At this point, term limits aren't the reality. And I don't think they're ultimately the answer, or much of a difference maker.

I think I know what needs to happen, and I don't see it happening. Absent that zombie apocalypse or something.

We can dream, though.