Random People (selected from phone book) Preferred Over Current Congress

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/02/08/random_people_preferred_over_current_congress.html

Random People Preferred Over Current Congress

A new Rasmussen survey of likely voters shows that 43% believe a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress, while 38% disagree with that assessment and another 19% are not sure.

[LiberalEsto]

1. As long as they're picked from the white pages

and not the business section.

[Enrique]

2. Random People 2012

they have my vote.

[bigmonkey]

3. Wasn't this, in fact, on of Jefferson's proposals?

As I recall, the idea was to lay a grid over the territory of the U.S., and select one person at random from each sector. I remember, also, that Berkeley tried a randomly-selected shadow City Council, and they were remarkably sober and sensible in their proposals.

[Cleita]

4. I've always said, we should practice true democracy and select our

representatives by lottery like you select juries. I suppose a certain vetting process would be necessary as well, but mostly a random selection of citizens from each district, who wish to do their civic duty, should be in our House representatives for two years. We could elect our senators and President the old fashioned way for checks and balances. But I always get shot down on this, so flame away DUers.

[MineralMan]

5. That ties into my idea for a Congressional draft.

Every two years, 435 House members and 1/3 of the Senate would be selected by lot from all IRS tax filings. Selectees would receive the standard payment for their service in Congress. One term only. A simple literacy test would be a requirement.

It would probably work better than what we have.

[unc70]

6. Love Lewis Black's take on this

In one of his HBO specials he proposes something similar for picking the President.