Congressional Retospective
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by HeadmistressTalia
Now that I'm an ordinary citizen again I thought I'd share with you my thoughts about congress. I served two terms representing Montana - not a huge amount of time but enough to get a feel for what's going on.
The Silly Season
The start of each congressional session could be best called the silly season. About 1/3 of all incoming congresspeople are new and don't know the ropes. This wouldn't be bad if they sat back and read all the helpful posts the old timers have put together. But the new guys are on a roll and have good ideas that they want to implement NOW. But it's been said that there are no new ideas, and most of the time this is true. There are reasons things are the way they are, and no matter how good the idea is, there's usually a damn good reason not to do it.
The silly season lasts about a week, after which most congress people have had some rules and prior knowledge beaten into them (I admit I occasionally used a big stick to beat it in). After that some REAL legislatin can occur.
Consensus
Anyone who has watched CSPAN knows that the real American Congress RARELY agrees wholeheartedly on anything. And that's true here in eAmerica too. We fight - sometimes obsessively, but this is good. Why? Because if we all agreed and marched in lockstep it would suck. Argument allows for people to see different prospective, and (shocker!) maybe even realize their idea had some flaws. So I LIKE argument! I don't like argument which devolves into personal insults, which tended to happen in my my first term. I am happy to say people poked at each other less this last congressional session.
Presidents
I have had the privilege to work with three Presidents while I was in office - Justinious, Uncle Sam, and Scrabman. I have to admit that, hand down, Scrabman is the best of the three. He actually WORKS with congress. He doesn't condescend or berate them, he doesn't ignore them or work around them, he actually treats congress like part of his team. Shocking!
This is why I have high hopes for the future - I think we can really get things done when we're not having power battles between Congress and the President. Scrabman has turned out to be far more fiscally conservative than I would have guessed, and he's willing to explain why he wants something done. The change is refreshing and I hope to see great things happen this next congressional term.
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Comments
Nice article. Agreed.
You know the effects of the "silly season" would be drastically reduced if people campaigning for Congress had the common sense to start paying attention to the Congressional forums (although it's something everyone should be doing anyway).
Not saying that nobody does, just poiting something out (anyone notice the min. wage raise proposal made by new Conressman Sadam Hussein?)
Yeah, it's rather sad. I was reading the public congressional forums WEEKS before I ever took office. So I knew the procedures and I had the history behind certain bills that might not have made sense otherwise. But really - shouldn't you have enough respect for the position to have researched it a bit first?
I was going to run for office this month, but then I realized that I don't read the congressional forums. I have no idea what's going on with that. So I decided another month of silly articles was in order. I'll run someday, when I've bothered to pay attention. Until then, I know better than to throw my hat into the ring.
@Jythier - Thanks for taking the responsible route! No silly season for you!
Talia, its always been a honor to work with you. I hope you stay active so we'll see you next term. 😃
@Talia: Be sure to look for a drunken article tonight about this issue.
Headmistress Talia you are severely missed by all of your former co-workers. We wish you only the best and hope this is merely a 1 month break that you can sit back and watch as an outsider.
As for your article: I must say, this term silly season isn't quite so silly. We've had only 1 silly proposal and it's getting shot down 1 to 48. Maybe all my work is paying off...
Happily this term seems a bit smarter than most - or at least they're keeping their silliness to the forums! We've already had proposals for caucuses (as if we need MORE stratification!), tax changes, and a whole pile of new infrastructure....
ALL of which (okay, the caucus idea was new) shouldn't have been proposed if the people had read the history behind where we are.
Thanks for the summary Talia. As an incoming knucklehead noob congressman, I'm sorry that I won't get to work with you this term.
Great article 😃
I was really looking for something more indepth, but its a great article.
I feel bad, I didn't know you were in congress in January.
🙂 More in depth when I get back from vacation! Right now the water's calling me....
Great article (looking forward to in depth ;p) You will be missed and we hope to have you back within 'Teh Halls' once again in the near future 😃
Now get back to vacay!