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Just an absurd Idea
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Just an absurd Idea


Feb 19, 2021, 10:24 PM

What if congress(not the senate) was like Jury Duty. People are selected at random in their district, with obvious exceptions, declare a party upon entry, serve for 4 years, then go about their lives. There would be obvious exceptions for people whose careers would make this impossible, say a neurosurgeon is far more important than a congressman.

I am not proposing this as an actual function plan, but ask, would this produce a more effective Congress than what we have now?, being that they no longer would spend half their time begging for money to get re-elected, and be one that more resembles the people.

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Extreme term limits


Feb 19, 2021, 10:30 PM

Not bad, balm!

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here's a crazy plan


Feb 19, 2021, 10:38 PM

how about we let individuals be responsible for their lives and tell congress to go #### themselves, we don't need them

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 19, 2021, 11:14 PM

Wouldn't it be better to just get the money out of running for office ??

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 19, 2021, 11:44 PM

I am fine with that too, term limits would help accomplish this. But you are never going to get congress to vote outside of their own interests. Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with what we have.

I was just curious what you guys thought. It really does not require any special skill to be a congressman, and having a broader cross section of professionals and working-class people in the house seems like it would make a congress that is more capable of solving and addressing real world problems.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 9:44 AM

Balm

I strongly disagree with the "anyone can do it" sentiment. Being a Congress person may not requires some specific set of skills, but it does require a group of skills that are actually relatively rare in the populace.

As far as politicians voting against their interests, I present you with one of the Democrat's legislative priorities for 2021 - The For the People Act

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-voting-democracy-voting-rights-coronavirus-pandemic-7fc2dde742c261ea897b127254377baa


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_People_Act


Now if some of you Republicans would put some pressure on your Senators NOT to filibuster this, maybe we could take a giant first step in making Congress represent the people of the United States rather than the rich oligarchy.

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I like the idea.


Feb 19, 2021, 11:27 PM

The downside is that the job - as it should operate, not as it does now - does require a level of decision making skill that many people are not constitutionally (pardon the pun) or experientially prepared for. The courageous application of pragmatic mindset to idealistic vision is not something many can do. Of course the crew up there now cant do it either, so we're facing the adage that our leaders are no better than we are, however chosen. We want some process that gets our best people there, not one that merely brings the worst ones home.

But yes, figure out what all the downsides are, mitigate those, and something like that could be good.

Message was edited by: CUintulsa®


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I've thought that for years - a true citizen's house.


Feb 20, 2021, 12:24 AM

As you said, like jury duty, or I've thought of it like a military draft. There would have to be some basic entrance requirements to make sure the potential legislators had satisfactory reasoning ability, and a clear appreciation of the gravity and solemnity of their duties. Then we'd have a house of ordinary citizens with real skin in the game, who knew they'd be returning to their real lives in a few short years, instead of career politicians getting rich as public servants.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
- H. L. Mencken


Not absurd.


Feb 20, 2021, 1:39 AM

https://youtu.be/2nf_bu-kBr4

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 5:21 AM

I like it...

I always thought that house and senate should have to live in their districts. No staffers in Washington either. Make it really hard for special interests, and lobbyists to control everyone. Committees, votes, etc. can be done via zoom. Also, two term limits for everyone. Supreme Court 20 yrs.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 9:26 AM

I can not say this for the senate, it more or less requires a law degree to function at your job a senator. Our legal language is so intentionally convoluted it makes it nearly impossible for the average person to even read. This is why nobody in the house bothers to read the bills that come ut of the senate, they rely on their party leadership to give them the cliffs and basically tell them how to vote. I could see this happening less if the house were a better representation of the people and not a cul, but you would still need attorneys to explain the policy proposals to them.

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They do... The K Street lobbyists that wrote them.***


Feb 20, 2021, 1:12 PM



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Great. All these years dodging jury duty, NOW Congress duty?


Feb 20, 2021, 7:23 AM

Better start growing my hair and get some new Dead tee shirts.

(Not a bad thought actually.)

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 8:55 AM

In theory I like the idea. Happy hour would probably be far more interesting in DC. However, it would appear with the current love in and expansion of Executive Orders that Congress is rapidly on its way to becoming about as useful as the appendix or wisdom teeth.

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I think this was the plot of the Hunger Games.***


Feb 20, 2021, 8:57 AM



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so you are equating a being selected for public service


Feb 20, 2021, 9:34 AM

with being selected at random to die for the pleasure of the wealthy? Seems the entire premise here is something entirely different.

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It was 100% a joke, but if you want to dissect it,


Feb 20, 2021, 10:06 AM

I'm thinking uprooting individuals from their respective careers and forcing them to serve....sorry, "selecting"....might not yield the most motivated and well-intentioned legislators.

Furthermore, now that I think about it....if you're exempting people like neurosurgeons because they're "more important" than legislators, how is such forced duty not serving the wealthy?

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Re: It was 100% a joke, but if you want to dissect it,


Feb 20, 2021, 10:20 AM

I eventually figured that out, late night working, coffee..

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 10:15 AM

Combining some of the comments...

If there were some minimum requirements that could be established and enforced it would help a lot. Could there be a test of some sort? Not like the SAT, but more centered on taking in information, digesting it, making a decision, communication (speaking and writing), etc.

People could apply and be in the pool of candidates.

With respect to worrying about intellectual qualifications, there are no qualifications today except you have to be able to raise money. We have plenty of people currently in House/Senate that I guess would not pass the test to get into the candidate pool.

I would not say this is an absurd idea at all. Thinking something like this would be implemented, however, might be absurd because displacing the current system would be near impossible it seems.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 10:24 AM

iDK dumb people seem pretty underrepresented these days.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 10:40 AM

Not in CA..................Mad Maxine, the Mother of Stupidity!

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 10:39 AM

Why not have a lottery drawing? However, the dems would surely stuff the lottery boxes with violent, convicted (but released by a DA) felons, with a slant towards BLM and ANTIFA murderers.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 12:45 PM

Great idea but unlikely to happen. However, I think publically funded campaigns would be a good start. Our "representatives" represent their donors, both private and corporate, and represent us last.

Get the money out and perhaps we could return to true representative govt. 2 robust, functioning political parties are good for the country as a whole.

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Re: Just an absurd Idea


Feb 20, 2021, 7:30 PM

the random selection would get rigged after one term

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