General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI think the single most important change we need in this country is the ability to impeach
members of Congress or Congress as a whole.
For individual congress critters, impeachment should occur if the majority of the voters in their state want them inpeached
For Congress as a whole, if the majority of national voters wants congress impeached.
It should be on the ballot in every election.
3catwoman3
(23,975 posts)...for the judicial branch, as well? Equal treatment for all branches.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)already has impeachment. It's the only way to get rid of a federal judge (that includes the supreme court).
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)and is unlikely to stand up to judicial scrutiny either
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)but if ever there were a year when there were enough disgruntled voters to get such an amendment...this is the year
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)To get what you want would require a Constitutional Convention by the states and since the Republicans control the majority of the states you won't like what else gets passed.
longship
(40,416 posts)The GOP is nothing but a fundamentalist religious cabal. There is nothing they would love more than a ConCon, a Constitutional Convention where they can remake this country into the warped religious domain that they wet dream about. All one has to do is listen to whom their candidates listen to, most especially Ted Cruz, or Sam Brownback, or any of the myriad of theocrats in the GOP.
Then, there's Hillary Clinton and her C Street buddies, quaintly called "The Family".
Religion and politics, religion and government, are a toxic mix. Always have been, always will be.
No ConCon for me. I prefer the slow, deliberative way.
former9thward
(31,997 posts)If voters don't want someone they can vote them out every two years. That is enough. Impeachment is not needed and would just be used to harass political opponents.
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)and obviously from the tenor of the electorate, many/most voters feel that Congress is not responding to them versus well monied interests.
We have no carrot...we need a stick.
Hekate
(90,674 posts)GET INVOLVED IN LOCAL PARTY POLITICS -- that's a collective enterprise.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Hekate
(90,674 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)You can't fix stupid.
Hekate
(90,674 posts)The Constitution lays out how to get rid of office holders very very clearly: Every 2, 4, and 6 years we have this thing called e-lec-tions. If the majority of voters in a state or district want an officeholder gone, the officeholder is out on their butt.
The Constitution also lays out very clearly the type of e-lec-tions we have across the country. Except for the president, we don't all get to say who's going to be in charge someplace else. Do you really want little Vermont to lose its Senator Sanders just because he's not popular in, say, Mississippi?
In fact, the Flint water crisis was caused by just such a scheme to overthrow locally elected Mayors and City Councils in black communities all around the state, and replace them with unelected "City Managers" appointed by the far-RW Governor.
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)however if the national approval rate of Congress is 14%...
the problem is not individual legislators, its the entire organization.
The organization has become unaccountable...the power of incumbency means that there is low probability that problems get fixed through the current election process.
Hekate
(90,674 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Just vote them out of office in two years.