"Herpes is now slightly more popular than Congress".

[William769]

(CNN) -- If the congressional "super committee" does not reach a deficit reduction deal by Wednesday's legally mandated deadline, I propose we take a page from the NBA owners and lock Congress out.

I'm serious. We, the taxpayers, are the owners of Congress and if Congress won't make a deal that helps our nation, then let's put a big padlock on the doors of the House and Senate -- or at least change the locks and not give them the keys.

Polls show that me and apparently 91% of my fellow Americans have never been more frustrated with the dysfunctional nature of "our" Congress. Congress' approval rating has fallen to an abysmal 9% -- to put this in perspective, herpes is now slightly more popular than Congress. Bed bugs really can't be that far behind.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/21/opinion/obeidallah-congress-failure/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[treestar]

1. What is unpopular is everyone else's congress members

Not one's own.

[peacebird]

5. Mark Warner is a useless Repuke-lite corporatist tool. And yes, sadly he is my rep.

[tsuki]

7. Mine is unpopular. He is robocalling like crazy. nt

[dawg]

2. We would get a better result from random selection.

Just pulling 535 random people off the street would give us a more workable Congress.

Sad.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Maybe it's time for Demarchy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demarchy

Demarchy (or lottocracy) is a form of government in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition (lot) from a broadly inclusive pool of eligible citizens. These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries", "citizens' juries", or "consensus conferences", deliberately make decisions about public policies in much the same way that juries decide criminal cases.

Demarchy, in theory, could overcome some of the functional problems of conventional representative democracy, which is widely subject to manipulation by special interests and a division between professional policymakers (politicians and lobbyists) vs. a largely passive, uninvolved and often uninformed electorate. According to Australian philosopher John Burnheim, random selection of policymakers would make it easier for everyday citizens to meaningfully participate, and harder for special interests to corrupt the process.

[treestar]

13. That would be interesting to try in some small polity

like a municipality.

To do that with Congress - my guess is that such a Congress would not be able to get anything done and that would lead to wider complaints.

At least people who choose to run for office are people who self selected to have the office.

It would become like jury duty - no one wanting to do it, trying to get out of it, and at times ending up with real morons in office (Michelle Bachmann is a moron but at least she had what it took to put a campaign together and that's something).

Don't see why the lobbyists wouldn't have an even easier time influencing inexperienced random legislators.

[valerief]

3. Herpes for the Senate! I'd vote for it. It's gotta be better than Mitch McConnell. nt

[peacebird]

4. I am glad they failed. Warner would willingly slash the social safety net for pennies

In pseudo revenue increases....

[midnight]

6. Let's take a page from Iceland instead....

What happened next was extraordinary. The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

Of course the international community only increased the pressure on Iceland. Great Britain and Holland threatened dire reprisals that would isolate the country. As Icelanders went to vote, foreign bankers threatened to block any aid from the IMF. The British government threatened to freeze Icelander savings and checking accounts. As Grimsson said: “We were told that if we refused the international community’s conditions, we would become the Cuba of the North. But if we had accepted, we would have become the Haiti of the North.” (How many times have I written that when Cubans see the dire state of their neighbor, Haiti, they count themselves lucky.)

In the March 2010 referendum, 93% voted against repayment of the debt. The IMF immediately froze its loan. But the revolution (though not televised in the United States), would not be intimidated. With the support of a furious citizenry, the government launched civil and penal investigations into those responsible for the financial crisis. Interpol put out an international arrest warrant for the ex-president of Kaupthing, Sigurdur Einarsson, as the other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.

But Icelanders didn't stop there: they decided to draft a new constitution that would free the country from the exaggerated power of international finance and virtual money. (The one in use had been written when Iceland gained its independence from Denmark, in 1918, the only difference with the Danish constitution being that the word ‘president’ replaced the word ‘king’.)http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/01/1001662/-Icelands-On-going-Revolution/

[nineteen50]

8. I wonder what the average age of the framers of the constitution was

and what the average age of our current legislatures is now?

[qb]

9. So true. While herpes is a recurring annoyance, Congress is definitely more irritating.

:rofl:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. "History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians." - Mark Twain

"History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians.  Now, to go and stick one at the very head of government couldn’t be wise." Mark Twain

[monmouth]

11. A cut, at the very least, in their pay might send a message. They talk

about the poor "collecting checks for doing nothing." (How I hate that sttement). Look in the mirror big boy..

[Aerows]

15. They should be making minimum wage

with no benefits.

[Aerows]

14. At the rate they are going

Soon a root canal with no anesthesia is going to be more popular than Congress, and for good reason. If they would stop playing around voting on things that don't even make sense like "Is pizza a vegetable?", they might become more popular than herpes again.

As it stands, they are definitely in line to be less popular than bed bugs and root canals.

[joeybee12]

16. Herpes is treatable at least...knr

[Festivito]

17. Congress is made up of three parties. Funny how no one asks the obvious question. /nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. Less popular than painful rectal itch and monkey vomit.

Amazing.

:D

[Name removed]

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