Bill Maher on Congress

I think there's a public administration theory about that. Something about always getting promoted to the top level of your incompetence. Ugh, now I have to look it up.

 

The Peter Principle

 

This isn’t unique to the US though which is important context that Bill refuses to even bring up. Go look at the weirdos in British Parliament as an example. He didn’t win but we all remember Lord Buckethead I’m sure.

There are some really good well meaning people in the mix though on the Democratic side. That also is lost here. However the cynicism that is pervasive in DC will make life hell for those people and unfortunately they’ll have a shorter shelf life in the job.

But what’s the alternative to a large legislative body like Congress or Parliament in government? Like if you can’t approach that question with actual fixes for Democracy that doesn’t lead to autocracy then you just sound like you are whining… which Maher does a lot of while he sits in his ivory tower of privilege.

 

I'm okay with Maher but there are no unique takes here.

 

"Congress bad". Such a brave and novel take.

 

We have no requirements for Congress by design from the framers. That’s why they only have 2 year terms in the house. The framers knew there would be complete morons in the House so they gave citizens the ability to quickly remove them via elections. What the framers didn’t think of is the impact of gerrymandering which would lead to so many districts drawn to allow for “safe zones” where hacks like Marjorie Traitor Green could get elected because of the high concentration of a certain type of voter pool.

The gripe here really is on Gerrymandering which is the root cause of lifetime unchallenged seats with morons with no ethics which leads to corruption.

What the framers put together is really the best we can hope for though. You don’t want to go down the road of highly restricting access to Congress or Parliament. It’s a wide open dense array of random citizen choices by design. That’s the point. If the citizens want Lord Buckethead or Majorie Traitor Green, they can put them in power for two years, and they can remove them from power 2 years later if they suck.

You fix gerrymandering and all the sudden the “safe zone” districts where in the US Lord Buckethead could get a lifetime seat suddenly becomes much less safe on both sides of the isle and I would bet money we’d have much higher quality people in Congress if just this one thing happened.

So when someone goes on rants like this without basic education to his viewers on why it’s like this and what actually is being done to fix it (which Joe Manchin and Kirstin Sinema are the two people blocking it from happening) he’s the one who kinda comes off as a whiny little b$tch.

 

Yes, gerrymandering, AFAIK, is mostly American thing.

 

Idk about everyone, but I wouldn’t trust that crazy lady from Georgia with a pet goldfish.

 

Maher is a pos

 

I saw a Twitter thread months ago how Congressmen use their inside info to load up on stocks. Pelosi, Greene, Wyden... Yeah, it's no surprise Georgia Barbie didn't get impeached.

Will post if I could find it, but not really a shocker.

No laws to clean that **** up.

 

Toqueville in 1831:

"Two years ago the inhabitants of the district of which Memphis is the capital sent to the House of Representatives in Congress an individual named David Crockett who has no education, can read with difficulty, has no property, no fixed residence, but passes his life hunting, selling his game to live, and dwelling continuously in the woods. His competitor, a man of wealth and talent, failed."

 

How about a man of education and competence that isn't wealthy?

There is a difference between being the man or woman of the people and Lauren Boebert.

 

Today Marks 80 Years Since Congress Last Bothered To Declare a War
Presidents once treated congressional authorization as a requirement for the U.S. to enter conflicts. What went wrong?

https://reason.com/2022/06/04/today-marks-80-years-since-congress-last-bothered-to-declare-a-war/

 

Last line is apt because they abdicated that role in order to absolve them from the responsibility of the consequences like Iraq or Vietnam (while short term profiting from their backers).

But if they're vermin, what does that make the people who elected them in the first place to wash themselves of that responsibility?

This behavior is symptomatic of decision fatigue. We're making more choices than ever that we've delegated the hard bits.

Except when we expect a professional to handle the hard bits, we forget they're just as human as the rest of us.

 

lol, the guy who runs that channel openly admitted he's a rage grifter cashing in on conservative brainworms.

also, that poll is engineered to piss off pubbies and boomers. zomg milennials having DISPOSABLE INCOME??? WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF