Congress Sucks + How to Fix It

Day 969, 09:49 • Published in USA USA • by Fionia

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I’ve found myself in a rather interesting position this month. I’m Vice President, immersed in the goings-on of the Executive Branch. However, I am still fairly involved and influential in Congress (as an unofficial advisor, or, that crazy bitch who likes yelling at people :3). Watching both branches has given me a bit of insight.



There is no denying that Congress sucks this month. The biggest debate, the one that has taken up the most time and spanned over the most threads, is about quorum (the minimum number of votes needed on any forum bills). That’s right, right after v2 has hit and there are multitudes of useful topics that Congress could be investigating, but instead they were quibbling over procedure. (Side note: the problem has gotten better in the past two or three days. But this article is still well worth writing) A few people have tried to steer the conversation to new topics (and I’d like to especially give credit to Laxsnor here). But Congress has a whole remains stagnant.

I’m not just here to bash Congress, by any means. I think there’s a fairly workable solution. One of the reasons Congress finds itself with so little to debate is because it is not trusted with much information. Congress’s primary role in-game is to handle the money, and I’ve noticed that over the months that I’ve been active, Congress has found itself increasingly relegated to only that role. When it comes to MPPs or hospital placements (important foreign and domestic policy tools, which Congress has to vote on), Congress is just told how to vote, often without even a reason as for why they should be voting that way.



Now, I should note that I’m not asking for Congress to be allowed to second-guess the Executive’s opinion. I’m asking for Congress to be informed, for a start. Congress sucks, yes, but they won’t get better if they keep getting pushed further and further to the sidelines. I’ve attempted to help Congress out this week, by trying to get them information when I could. The big problem is the (not undeserved right now) attitude towards Congress, that Congress can’t handle anything important. In my opinion, if we start letting Congress handle more things, we should see an improvement. It will be a long process, but it’s worth a shot.

Going even further, why not use Congress as a think-tank? A big deal is made every single month about getting the best possible candidates into Congress. What’s the purpose if there’s nothing for them to do? Pose a (non-urgent) problem to them, and let 30 minds (on a good month, that’s an average of how many actives there are) tackle it, instead of only 4 or 5 in the Executive.

So here’s the summary:
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* Congress sucks.

* They suck because they spend so much time debating procedure.

* They spend so much time debating procedure because:
a) Almost nobody will take the initiative to try and do something else (props to Laxsnor here, for having initiative).
b) Congress has been restricted over the months from their primary responsibility being money to their sole responsibility being the money.

* There’s a strong chance that Congress will stop sucking if they’re steadily given more responsibility.
a) This does not mean letting Congress second-guess major decisions. It does mean allowing them to contribute to discussions and let their opinions be known.

* Considering how much fuss there is over getting good candidates into Congress, there should be more of a push for Congress to be able to do stuff.

* On the flip side, Congress needs to be able to actually tear themselves away from procedural issues. Both sides need to actually work on this. It can’t just be one-sided or there will be more failure in store.

That's all for today, guys. Thanks for reading, voting, and subscribing.

Signing off,
Fionia