Citizen Legislators vs. Career Politicians

That will be the battle royale of the 21st Century political arena according to Mark Tapscott.

Politicians in both major parties who repeatedly seek re-election to keep “bringing home the bacon” while feathering their own nests are careerists. Candidates in both parties who bring the real world to Washington to clean it up — and who can’t wait to return home — are citizen legislators.

Careerists thrive on the power, perks and prestige that come with being insiders. Until now, their power stemmed from a monopoly on information, which they selectively shared with the rest of us. Theirs is the world of old media, big impersonal institutions and spinning “experts.”

By contrast, citizen legislators thrive on the power of principle and the liberating independence that comes with being outsiders. Their power stems from their cultivation of information to the widest possible audience and the accountability that comes with such transparency. Theirs is the world of Internet-based new media and the collaborative networking that thrives there.

As long as the careerists remain in power, they will continue aggrandizing themselves, while making government bigger, more costly and less able to deal with emergencies like Hurricane Katrina and the coming entitlement crisis.

It doesn’t make much difference anymore which party has the congressional majority. The Senate’s Water Resources Development bill, for instance, has 446 earmarks, the House version 692. (Earmarks are measures giving members of Congress exclusive control over the spending of federal tax dollars on a project they favor.)

Those figures exceed the then-unprecedented total for the 2006 GOP version of the same bill, despite Democrats’ promises last year to clean up the Republicans’ culture of corruption epitomized by the explosion of earmarks between 1996 and 2006.

Tapscott may be right.

He also talks about a constitutional amendment to impose term limits. This is an issue I am torn on. While I certainly don't like the careerism of may on Capitol Hill, John Dingell of Michigan is in his 27th or 28th term, that is amost 60 years in Congress (and his daddy held the seat before him), and he is but one example, I also don't like to take choice away from voters. What if one of Tapscott's "citizen legislators" is doing such a good job they deserve to be re-elected.

I think there are much better ways of injecting competition into Congressional elections, by reforming the manner in which redistricting is done and altering the campaign finance rules to minimize the incumbent advantage.

Of course, the manner in which both parties are conducting themselves, a term limits bill may not be needed. If we wait long enough, they will implode all by themselves.