I think we have to impose term limits and other reforms.....
I agree, Term Limits would help too.
But... Passing the 17th Amendment didn't stop Senate seats from being bought and sold. Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted for trying to sell Barak Obama's Illinois State Senate seat after he became a US Senator. My question has always been this: If the seat was for-sale when Obama left, is it possible it was for sale before Obama showed up? It is Chicago/Illinois after all.
[–] PGLiterati2 ago
Yes, I recall. It is very hard, one might even say impossible to write law to prevent corruption. I was so angry last week I was thinking that they should go back to not being paid, and serving only one term. I really liked that idea for about an hour, and then it occurred to me that with zero accountability (no threat of a re-election loss) they would have even greater potential for mis-use of power than they do now--which is why, as my mother always argued, the vote is the term limit. Now I know that they usually are re-elected, power entrenched remains entrenched. So, I went back and looked at this proposed Utah law--they set a pretty high bar. 25% of the voting constituency would have to sign a petition demanding their recall. And now, at least for the moment, I am thinking this might be the best solution. A lot of bogus congressional members were voted in in 2018--candidates like Ilhan Omar who clearly (along with AOC) and many others, appear to be puppets. I am liking this idea more and more.