-Laelth

Needs more eyes.

KICK!

eom

At one time, not too many years ago, this was mainstream....
at least for the Democratic party.

and more power they have, the less likely they are to pursue those.

What you said is the worry that many of us have...yet others refuse or just sadly aren't aware enough to acknowledge.

"...and more power they have, the less likely they are to pursue those."

Dems will say they plan to do the right things when they regain power.

Then when they actually regain the majority, the do as little different from the GOP as possible.

Here in California, single payer made it through the legislature and to the governor's desk TWICE--when there was a GOP governor who was certain to veto it.

When we finally got a Democratic governor AND a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature, the bill was defeated by DEMOCRATS not voting for it.

..a bit dated, but the rules for this game are current and in use.

Villain Rotation:
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/

"Catch" enough votes to pass the legislation you want, then if you have more than enough, "release" those reps or senators whose reelection prospects might be hurt by casting that vote.

That way they can keep their ideological credibility without actually hurting their pro-business agenda.

"what we got is the best we could do."

If you didn't have to deal with a filibuster (which they didn't), you could have done a hell of a lot better.

I'm certain the Democrats in the Senate were glad to lose the filibuster-proof majority, so they could hide behind the skirts of Republicans as their excuse for not passing the more progressive legislation their constituents expected.

And of course none of this procedural gymnastics to avoid doing something comes into play for wars, Wall Street bailouts or the like.

Then the rules barely matter at all, because they are nearly all on the same page.

Without more representation in the Congress, we will never get played fair.

The longer a congress critter is in office the more corrupt they can become, and often do. Hey, nearly everyone of them comes out far richer than when they went in. Fact.

We need a thousand congress critters. Maybe 2k. That way congress's power, now concentrated in just 535 people, is disbursed and shared.

There is no other way to get to fair from here. This 'More Critters' idea is working within the system by making the system more representative.

Right now, they have us by the short-hairs and no one will make a move. They win, because they have the power.

Quadrupling the number of Congressional Districts would make it much harder to gerrymander, and the relationship between The People and their designated representative would be closer, making them more accountable.

The potential for turning Congress into a chaotic nightmare would be high,
but a chaotic nightmare would be preferable to the "organized against The People" nightmare we have now.

Most of the work could be done much as we do stuff here on DU.

Of course the only members of such a forum would be critters themselves, but we would be able to look 'over their shoulders' which might just make them behave.

multi-seat districts.

Make them big enough and heterogenous enough that more than one party has a chance of winning some of the seats, but small enough that pols could still campaign in person.

That would actually work better with an expanded Congress.

The Senate should become like the House of Lords: neutered.

or better yet, do away with it altogether. Even when the Democrats control it, they seem more worried about not offending rich people than getting anything done for the rest of us.

right direction.

A good example of why was the Iraq Hydrocarbon Law that would have given 88% of their oil income to oil companies. Every member of the cabinet (a small group) approved of it, but the parliament (a far larger group) refused to even when offered substantial individual bribes.

Also, the more representatives you have, the more effort it would take to corrupt or intimidate it into acting against the public interest.

some they will let into the Elysium, but some will have to be the link to Mad Max world--and those who wipe their asses and raise their children they will try to send back to Mad Max at end of every day.

Those people with a foot in both worlds will always be the weak link.

When those links realize how crucial they are to the Elysium, and that the Elysium needs them far, far more than they need the Elysium, the elite will be finished.