The Dangerous Framing of Congress as an Inept Community

[ClassWarrior]

An excellent article worth repeating, the way things have been around here lately...

http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/07/24/the-dangerous-framing-of-congress-as-an-inept-community

NGU.

[grasswire]

1. thank you

Even the title is satisfying. Dammit.

[ClassWarrior]

3. My pleasure. It never fails to amaze me how many Progressives...

...who consider themselves so enlightened will just spew these knee-jerk memes without really considering the damage they're doing to our nation. But I figure most people, when they're made aware of what they're inadvertantly doing, will make an effort to do the right thing.

NGU.

[grasswire]

4. well, some of them are working specifically to split...

..the Democratic party, just as they did in 2000.

[ClassWarrior]

10. .

[eridani]

12. Do tell. And what exactly is it that you call what Rahm Emmanuel was doing?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3596340

[paulk]

2. thanks for posting

this article should be read by every member of this website, IMO.

[ClassWarrior]

7. I hope they do. Please help keep this kicked so they can?

Peace, and...

Never Give Up.

[ClassWarrior]

17. .

[madfloridian]

5. There is a very fine line to be walked.

There must be some calling them to account for votes that are just wrong.

The attention on the FISA bill appears to have helped some. And we can't sit by and let them talk of attacking Iran and such things.

Don't condemn, but definitely question.

[ClassWarrior]

8. Of course! But there's a very bright line between...

..."you didn't do (something) right" and "you don't do anything right."

:hi: mad.

NGU.

[JDPriestly]

6. Interesting.

Congress does not seem to understand how impatient many of us are with the secretiveness and misrepresentations of the Bush administrations. Americans hold Congress in low esteem because it is not performing its duty to check and oversee the executive branch.

[ClassWarrior]

9. Congress was held in low esteem long before any of that.

Remember the old joke, "If pro is the opposite of con, what's the opposite of progress?"

The whittling away at the mighty power that the Founders wisely bestowed on Congress - and the subsequent accruing of it to the unitary dictator - has been decades in the doing. And anyone who gives a damn about our country should be working to reverse it, not hasten it.

NGU.

[Raejeanowl]

13. I Would Draw A Slight Distinction

If your criticism is specific to the DU community-and I have to assume it is-what I've inferred in my brief time as a member here is not so much that there is a growing contempt for the august institution (the context of the article), but exasperation for the collective effectiveness of the current membership in performing its constitutional role, and therefore vouchsafing its own authority.

I do take the point of the article, but the reasoning still rings fallaciously, kind of a kill the kid who cried that the Emperor has no clothes because the Emperor's dignity must be maintained at all costs. What good did the Emperor do himself with his blind vanity?

What was Clinton's role in the blue dress fiasco? Was the perception of the Presidency already eroding? Didn't he contribute to dishonoring it further? Were his (non-partisan) critics ultimately more to blame than he because they perceived it to be so dishonored?

If the process of entropy has accelerated exponentially under Bush, the current Congress still has to bear some of that responsibility. I wouldn't advocate throwing out the baby with the bathwater on Capitol Hill, but we're all ready for a cleansing of one sort or another.

[ClassWarrior]

14. No doubt you've also observed an intellectual laziness around here...

...on the part of many, many posters who very well may suffer "exasperation for the collective effectiveness of the current membership in performing its constitutional role;" but they end up slamming and sliming the whole institution of Congress and its entire collective membership, without any consideration for the heroes there who are going above and beyond their constitutional roles.

And that kind of expression is not in any way healthy. Not for the poor bitter souls who regurgitate it, nor for any observers who may be influenced by this onslaught of words (however subtly and incrementally - for that's how psy-ops work).

In other words, many here need to learn to put the "constructive" back in criticism.

NGU.

[JDPriestly]

15. The anthrax attacks were a direct threat to Congress,

yet Congress has never investigated them. This is an example of Congress' lack of courage in the face of an aggressive, unprincipled executive.

I am unaware of any provision in the Constitution that provides for the many quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial, quasi-executive agencies. It seems to me that the legislature should play a bigger role in reviewing the legislative or rule-making activities of the agencies. The executive has too much influence on the day-to-day functioning of the agencies. That gives the executive too much power.

[Raejeanowl]

16. Point Taken n/t

[LandOLincoln]

11. Yes, an excellent AND important article.

:kick: & R, naturally.