by Donald Jeffries, “I Protest”:
Elected or selected, and set for life
Our Founders never envisioned that those selected to represent the interests of the people would be career politicians. They pictured statesmen, who were interested in public service, not lining their pockets. They never thought of writing term limits into the Constitution. Those enjoying the free ride surely aren’t going to implement them.
In 1944, John T. Flynn, best remembered as the “cancelled” head of the New York chapter of the America First Committee trying to prevent our entrance into World War II, wrote the book Meet Your Congress. It was not just an expose on how bad Congress already was, but a plea for the legislative branch to flex their muscles, and check the unbridled power of the judicial branch and the imperial presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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The Constitution established three separate but equal branches of government, which was supposed to prevent too much concentrated power in any one place. But early on, the legislative branch took a clear back seat to the judicial branch, when John Marshall simply invented Judicial Review.
When Abraham Lincoln took office, and overstepped his constitutional authority with reckless abandon, the template for the imperial presidency had been set. There has never been an imperial Congress. Instead, Congress consistently has abrogated its responsibilities. For instance, Congress has the sole authority to declare war under the Constitution. They haven’t formally declared war since WWII, but our government certainly hasn’t been at peace. They also have the sole authority to enact legislation. This became an especially laughable concept during the imperial presidencies of Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR.
As far back as the late 1800s, Mark Twain was calling Congress “America’s only native criminal class.” Humorist Will Rogers declared that “the public is never safe while Congress is in session.” Everyone chuckled at the wisdom in these expressions, but few seem to have wondered why our representative body should be such a national laughingstock. Has there ever been a “great” Congress? As a classical liberal firebrand in the mid-1970s, I admired the congressional Democrats who exposed the chicanery of the CIA and FBI, and passed the Freedom of Information Act. But I hardly thought they were heroic. They certainly dropped the ball with the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which first triggered by disillusionment with the Left.
By the 1990s, I related to many of the issues popular with the “extreme” Right. I understood that Newt Gingrich was a typical mainstream Republican, but his Contract with America, especially the plank advocating congressional Term Limits, got my attention. When he became Speaker of the House, I watched to see if these career politicians were actually going to limit their careers. There were a few Republicans who ran for Congress and promised to limit their own terms, one of whom upset long-time corrupt Democrat Dan Rostenkowski. But once in office, they quickly forgot their pledge. And so we sit here, thirty years later, with only a few “extremist” voices still talking about Term Limits. We lost on that issue, as we have lost on everything else.
When I started becoming a political junkie, I knew the names of pretty much everyone in Congress, just as I’d once memorized the rosters of professional sports teams. There were always a handful of good ones, like Ron Paul. Or James Trafficant, one of the last great Democrats, who was so honest that he was expelled from Congress. The few decent ones shined during congressional hearings on Rudy Ridge and Waco. I watched those hearings faithfully, and sometimes the live sessions of Congress on C-SPAN. Watching the “democracy” sausage being made wasn’t pretty. But however you look at it, there were more members of possibly good faith there as late as the 1990s than there are now. Some of the Freedom Caucus Republicans say good things, but it’s hard to trust any of them in America 2.0.
Congressman Larry McDonald wrote the Foreword to one of the essential books, that belongs in every “awake” person’s library- None Dare Call it Conspiracy by Gary Allen. In 1983, McDonald was on board Korean Airlines Flight 007 when it was shot down by a Soviet plane. Strident anti-communist President Ronald Reagan did absolutely nothing in response. It was a “containment” thing, you wouldn’t understand. It’s a pretty amazing coincidence that the foremost “conspiracy theorist” to serve in Congress died so unnaturally. The great “muckraker” establishment toadie Jack Anderson was on hand to gloat that if any member of Congress had to die, they certainly picked the right one.
But those kinds of figures are few and far between in the hallowed halls of Congress. Today, we have the likes of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who somehow went from waitress to congressional representative. Funny, no one talks about her lack of “experience” or qualifications. Her own brother said she answered a casting call for Congress. She’s essentially a very well paid crisis actor. Patty Murray, in a similar vein, went from pre-school teacher and mother to the U.S. Senate in 1992, where she continues to build her lucrative pension. She has zero charisma, and someone with her ordinary background, like AOC, could not possibly have risen to such a position without great powers helping behind the scenes. “Our” Congress creature Ilhan Omar recently pledged her allegiance to Somalia, not this country.
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