Please explain why we even have minority congressmen?

Their hands are so tied with all the house and senate rules that favor the majority, what is the freakin point of paying for them to even be there?

They can't to anything positive other than speak out against the majority. How is that a check and balance in our system of government.

I don't get it, and it pisses me off!

I think that the ethics reform should address this winner take all bullshit.

In the UK do the opposing partys share power more than we do here?

When they don't even do that, THEN there is a problem.

Bottom line though, if you can't rely on elections to help the situation, what can you rely on? Dictatorship? That's no better.

I believe that leaving the rules in the hands of the majority corrupts the process - When we have control again I wonder how often the Repugs will be screaming "up or down vote." (the most tiresome, overused phrase of the year!) or if there will be threats of the nuclear option! :nuke:

...every "democracy" the United States has "helped" establish has been parlimentary in design. Wonder why that is...

you're not paying attention.

of give and take ... The rules are the rules, but the founding fathers never intended for the majority to be THIS hard line with them ... Also, the Rs have SO broke house rules, stuff in the constitution even ... This nonsense of keeping votes open past the 15 minute mark, holding votes at night ...

The problem is the whole R mentality of maintain power at all costs, first and foremost ... Governance of the country a VERY distant second ... It starts at the top and goes down to very last of them ... My repuke respresentative ... Doesn't seem to be involved in any of the real dirty stuff, but he is part of the problem ... SOMEONE within the party has to have the decency, the integrity to stand up and say he or she won't participate in a bastardization, or even flat and blatent breaking of the rules ... It ain't just the Hasserts, Delays ... It is EVERY single last one of them, who put their own interests ahead of the institution ...

Has abdicated their responsibility to represent their constituents (aka "the People"), in favor of the absolute power of the "faction". This is a breakdown of our Republican form of government and actually represents the worst flaws of "Pure Democracy". In particular, it's an example absolute "majority rule", where the 51% hold total power over the 49%. Alas, in our government, they've even managed through trickery and fraud to achieve "majority" status when they don't actually even represent a true majority.

The only protections we have are the separation of powers and the Rule of Law by means of our Constitution. Thus it should be no surprise that those in power are attempting (and succeeding) at dismantling those separations while simultaneously packing the courts with unethical Republicans (who will interpret the law as the please--negating the value and meaning of having laws in the first place).