Over the past month we have watched our national government do a number of preposterous things. It is embarrassing because it goes to the roots of our dysfunctional democracy and raises the question of whether democracy can be improved.
It turns out that legislators cannot reduce government budgets in any way that jeopardizes funding for the individual politicians. Party appointees and hacks under them will follow the Party line. Legislators cannot think about the common good. It can never override their own personal legislative benefits ranging from cars, to salaries, to staff, all the way to lavish retirement bennies. Legislative bodies are unable to act in ways that are contrary to their own self interest.
To expect otherwise is self-deception.
I am here to remind you that there is a way to have legislative groups that are functional and act on behalf of the general population.
For that to happen we need to have legislative bodies of every sort and at every level selected by random processes. The technical term for this form of legislative body selection is sortition. The book that I wrote on the subject is Citizen Legislature.
When I get furious with the inability of Democratic legislatures to act in the common good and in the public interest I have to remember that random selection of legislators is the solution to this problem.