13 January 2006It's your night in the barrelRobert McHenry in TCS Daily proposes this small Constitutional amendment:
Members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen each two years by lot from among the adult citizens of each congressional district.
Just like jury duty, but for twenty-four months. Distinct advantages:
Possible drawbacks:
On second thought, strike that second drawback: we already have a surplus of really stupid bills. William F. Buckley Jr. once opined that he'd rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston phone book than by the 2000-member faculty at Harvard. I can't help but wonder what he would think of this idea. I suspect it would not sit well with the American left, which would reject it, not so much because it sounds somewhat Buckleyesque, but because their particular concept of government calls for Great and Sweeping Ideas, which J. Random Voter is presumably not likely to come up with on his own if suddenly he's thrust into the House. Not that the right is exactly devoid of elitism, as Harriet Miers could probably tell you. Oh, and one more drawback:
Nobody, not even Robert McHenry, said it was a perfect scheme. Posted at 2:22 PM to Political Science FictionTrackBack: 3:02 PM, 14 January 2006 » Congress after Abramoff from Tinkerty Tonk NZ Bear's appeal from center-right bloggers calls for greater transparency and pushes Shadegg for majority leader.We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather th .........[read more] I sit off to your left somewhere, but I think this is a great idea. Probably closer to what the founding fathers had in mind, and even a random draw could not populate the hallowed halls of Congress with a more curmudgeonly crowd of crooks than our election process has done. Posted by: Winston at 6:40 AM on 14 January 2006And if they screw up while in the House, they have to serve in the Senate. Six year sentence. Posted by: Craig at 3:07 PM on 17 January 2006Now that's just harsh. :) |